I6H5 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


INDIAN  HISTORY 


WINNESHIEK  (XHJNTY 


BY 

CHARLES  PHILIP  HEXOM 


INDIAN  HISTORY 

OF 

WINNESHIEK  COUNTY 


Compiled  by 
CHARLES  PHILIP  HEXOM 


A.  K.  BAILEY  &  SON,  INCORPORATED 

DUCORAIl.    tOW.\ 

1913 


Copyright,  1913 
CHARLES  PHILIP  HEXOM 


PREFACE 


In  the  preparation  of  this  article  it  has  been  the  compiler's 
aim  to  make  the  work  as  complete  and  correct  as  possible.  Dili- 
gent search  has  been  made  for  information,  and  considerable 
pains  have  been  taken  to  give  the  people  of  Winneshiek  county 
a  reliable  account  of  the  Indians  who  once  inhabited  this  section 
of  the  country.  The  writer  has  discovered  that  a  number  of 
erroneous  statements  in  regard  to  these  Indians  have  unfortu- 
nately found  their  way  into  print.  In  such  instances  every  effort 
has  been  made  to  procure  accurate  information. 

In  gathering  the  data  here  assembled  the  writer  has  had  the 
kind  assistance  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society,  the  Iowa 
Library  Commission,  and  the  United  States  Ethnological  Bu- 
reau. Thanks  are  also  due  to  Oliver  Lamere  (a  first  cousin  of 
Angel  De  Cora),  who  has  made  diligent  search  for  desired  in- 
formation among  members  of  his  tribe  on  their  reservation  in 
Nebraska;  Geo.  W.  Kingsley,  Angel  De  Cora,  Little  Winne- 
shiek, and  Antoine  Grignon  (all  of  whom  are  Winnebago  In- 
dians, except  the  last,  who  is  part  Winnebago  and  part  Sioux) ; 
Dr.  Eben  D.  Pierce ;  Roger  C.  Mackenstadt ;  Chas.  H.  Saun- 
ders,  and  H.  J.  Goddard. 

All  of  the  above  have  responded  in  a  most  gratifying  man- 
ner to  requests  for  information,  some  of  them  taking  the  trouble 
to  prepare  long  communications,  which  have  been  indispensable 
in  the  preparation  of  the  following  article  and  which  the  writer 
cherishes  as  among  his  most  valued  possessions.  All  quotations 
credited  to  them  in  this  article  have  been  taken  from  letters  re- 
ceived by  the  writer  since  December,  1912. 


In  regard  to  Angel  De  Cora,  a  summary  of  her  career  is 
given  in  the  body  of  the  article,  where  the  main  facts  about 
Antoine  Grignon's  life  will  also  be  found.  That  the  reader  may 
form  a  proper  conception  of  the  value  of  the  information  im- 
parted by  other  individuals  mentioned  above  (and  all  this  has 
a  bearing  on  the  trustworthiness  of  the  article),  the  following 
statements  are  appended  : — 

"During  the  month  of  August,  1911,  there  came  to  Madison 
from  the  Nebraska  reservation  two  Winnebago  Indians,  Mr. 
Oliver  Lamere  and  Mr.  John  Rave.  Both  men  were  in  the  em- 
ploy of  Dr.  Paul  Radin  of  the  American  Bureau  of  Ethnology, 
who  for  several  years  past  has  been  conducting  researches 
among  their  tribe  for  the  government.  They  remained  in  Wis- 
consin until  the  first  weeks  in  September.  Both  were  Indians  of 
exceptional  intelligence.  Mr.  Lamere  is  a  grandson  of  Alex- 
ander Lamere,  one  of  the  group  of  early  Lake  Koshkonong  fur- 
traders,  and  a  grandson  of  Oliver  Armel,  an  early  Madison  fur- 
trader.  Mr.  Lamere  [Oliver]  acted  as  Dr.  Radin's  assistant 
and  interpreter."  From  an  article  in  "The  Wisconsin  Archeolo- 
gist,"  1911,  by  Charles  E.  Brown,  secretary  and  curator  of  The 
Wisconsin  Archeological  Society,  and  chief  of  The  State  (Wis.) 
Historical  Museum,  Madison,  Wis. 

"George  Kingsley  *  *  *  *  a  member  of  the  Wiscon- 
sin Branch  of  the  Winnebago  Tribe  of  Indians,  I  consider  to  be 
the  best  authority  on  these  matters." — L.  M.  Cpmpton,  Super- 
intendent of  Tomah  School  (United  States  Indian  Service), 
Wisconsin. 

Dr.  Eben  D.  Pierce  is  a  member  of  the  state  (Wis.)  and 
county  (Trempealeau)  Historical  Societies.  He  has  written  a 
biography  of  Antoine  Grignon,  a  short  history  of  the  Winne- 
bago Indians,  and  has  contributed  several  articles  on  the  history 
of  that  section. 

Roger  C.  Mackenstadt,  now  at  the  Uintah  and  Ouray  In- 
dian Agency,  Utah,  was  formerly  chief  clerk  at  the  Winnebago 
reservation  in  Nebraska. 


Chas.  H.  Saunders  is  a  white  man  who  has  lived  with  the 
Indians  most  of  the  time  (since  he  was  thirteen  years  old).  He 
married  into  the  Waukon  family  of  Winnebago  Indians,  whose 
language  he  speaks  fluently.  He  was  raised  at  Lansing,  la.,  and 
was  for  a  number  of  years  a  resident  of  Wisconsin.  He  now  re- 
sides in  Nebraska. 

H.  J.  Goddard  of  Fort  Atkinson  has  been  a  resident  of 
Winneshiek  county  since  1849.  Mr.  Goddard  has  willingly 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  writer  his  well-stored  memory  of 
early  recollections.  He  is  a  Civil  War  veteran  and  is  thus  es- 
pecially competent  to  speak  with  authority  in  regard  to  military 
matters  connected  with  the  fort. 

Other  old  settlers  have  also  responded  cheerfully  to  re- 
quests for  information.  In  most  instances  their  names  appear  in 
the  article.  The  writer  acknowledges  a  debt  of  gratitude  to 
them  all. 

The  following  authorities  have  been  consulted : 

"History  of  Winneshiek  and  Allamakee  Counties." — W.  E. 
Alexander,  1882. 

"Atlas  of  Winneshiek  County." — Anderson  &  Goodwin, 
1905. 

"The  Making  of  Iowa." — Henry  Sabin,  LL.  D.,  1900. 

"History  of  Iowa,"  v.  i. — G.  F.  Gue,  1903. 

"The  Red  Men  of  Iowa."— A.  R.  Fulton,  1882. 

"The  Indian,  The  Northwest."— C.  &  N.  W.  Ry.,  1901. 

"North  Americans  of  Yesterday." — F.  S.  Dellenbaugh. 

"Handbook  of  American  Indians." — B.  of  A.  E.,  1911. 

"Smithsonian  Report,"  1885. 

"Annals  of  Iowa." ' 

"The  Wisconsin  Archeologist."  a 

CHARLES  PHILIP  HEXOM. 
June  18,  1913. 

1  Articles  by  Eliphalet   Price,   C.   A.   Clark,  and  War  Dept.   Records 
of  Fort  Atkinson. 

*  "  The  Winnebago  Tribe,"   by  P.  V.   Lawson,  LL.  B. 


THE  WINNEBAGO  TRIBE 


Taki  maka  a-icha'gha  hena  mita'wa-ye  lo — Yo,  yoyo! 
All  that  grows  upon  the  earth  is  mine — Yo,  yoyo! 

— Translation  of  a  Sioux  song. 


The  Winnebago  tribe  is  the  fourth  group  of  the  great 
Siouan,  or  Dakota,  family.  The  Wninebagoes  were  styled  by 
the  Sioux,  Hotanke,  or  the  "big-voiced  people;"  by  the  Chippe- 
was,  Winipig,  or  "filthy  water ;"  by  the  Sauks  and  Foxes,  Wini- 
Pyagohagi,  or  "people  of  the  filthy  water."  Allouez  spells  the 
name  Ovenibigouts.  The  French  frequently  called  them  Puans, 
or  Puants,  names  often  roughly  translated  Stinkards,  The  lowas 
called  them  Ochungaraw.  They  called  themselves  Ochungurah, 
or  Hotcangara.  Dr.  J.  O.  Dorsey,  the  distinguished  authority  on 
the  Siouan  tribes,  states  that  the  Siouan  root,  "changa,"  or 
"hanga,"  signifies  "first,  foremost,  original  or  ancestral."  Thus 
the  Winnebagoes  called  themselves  Hotcangara,  "the  people 
speaking  the  original  language,"  or  "people  of  the  parent 
speech."  Traditional  and  linguistic  evidence  shows  that  the 
Iowa  Indians  sprang  from  the  Winnebago  stem,  which  appears 
to  have  been  the  mother  stock  of  some  other  of  the  southwestern 
Siouan  tribes. 

The  term  "Sioux"  is  a  French  corruption  of  Nadowe-is-iw, 
the  name  given  them  by  the  Chippewa  Indians  of  the  Algonquin 
family.  It  signifies  "snake,"  whence  is  derived  the  further 
meaning  "enemy."  The  name  Dakota,  or  Lakota,  by  which  the 
principal  tribes  of  the  Siouan  stock  call  themselves,  means  "con- 
federated," "allied." 


Regarding  the  remote  migrations  that  must  have  taken 
place  in  such  a  widespread  stock  as  the  Siouan.  different  theories 
are  held.  An  eastern  origin  is  now  pretty  well  established  for 
this  stock;  for  in  Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina,  and 
Mississippi  were  the  homes  of  tribes  now  extinct,  which  eth- 
nologists class  as  belonging  to  the  Siouans.*  The  prehistoric 
migration  of  these  Indians,  which  undoubtedly  was  gradual,  pro- 
ceeded towards  the  west ;  while  the  Dakotas,  Winnebagoes,  and 
cognate  tribes,  it  appears,  took  a  more  northerly  course. 

Passing  to  the  authentic  history  of  the  Winnebagoes  the 
first  known  meeting  between  this  tribe  and  the  whites  was  in 
1634,  when  the  French  ambassador,  Jean  Nicolet,  found  them  in 
Wisconsin  near  Green  Bay.  At  this  time  they  probably  ex- 
tended to  Lake  Winnebago.  How  long  the  tribe  had  main- 
tained its  position  in  that  territory  previous  to  the  coming  of 
the  whites  is  unknown.  They  were  then  numerous  and  power- 
ful. Father  Pierre  Claude  Allouez  spent  the  winter  of  1669-70 
at  Green  Bay  preaching  to  the  Winnebagoes  and  their  Central 
Algonquian  neighbors. 

The  Winnebagoes  constituted  one  party  in  a  triple  alliance, 
to  which  also  the  Sauks  and  Foxes  belonged,  and  were  always 
present  with  the  Foxes  in  their  battles  against  the  French,  and 
their  ancient  enemy  the  Illinois  Indians.  In  an  effort  to  com- 
bine all  the  tribes  against  the  Foxes,  the  French  in  some  way 
won  over  the  Winnebagoes.  After  being  on  unfriendly  terms 
with  the  Foxes  for  several  years,  the  old  friendship  was  re- 
vived ;  yet  the  Winnebagoes  managed  to  retain  the  friendship  of 
the  French  and  continue  in  uninterrupted  trade  relations  with 
them,  for,  following  the  missionary,  came  the  trader. 

In  1763  France  ceded  Canada  to  England.  The  Winne- 
bagoes, however,  were  reluctant  to  transfer  their  allegiance  to 

•  "The  Siouan  Tribes  of  the  East,"  by  James  Mooney,  Bulletin  Bureau 
of  Ethnology,   1894,  Washington. 


the  English ;  but  when  they  did,  they  remained  firm  in  their  new 
fealty.  The  English  were  known  to  the  Winnebagoes  as 
Monhintonga,  meaning  "Big  Knife ;"  this  term  is  said  to  have 
originated  from  the  kind  of  swords  worn  by  the  English.* 
When  the  thirteen  colonies  declared  their  independence  in  1776, 
the  Winnebagoes  allied  themselves  with  the  British  and  fought 
with  them  through  the  Revolutionary  War.  They  participated 
in  the  border  outbreaks  in  Ohio  and  were  among  the  savages 
defeated  by  General  Anthony  Wayne  on  August  20,  1794.  In 
the  War  of  1812-15  they  espoused  the  cause  of  England,  and  in 
the  years  immediately  following  this  war  they  became  quite  in- 
solent. 

The  so-called  Winnebago  War  of  1827  was  of  short  dura- 
tion. The  energetic  movements  of  Governor  Cass,  the  prompt- 
ness of  the  militia  under  Colonel  Henry  Dodge,  and  the  des- 
patch of  General  Atkinson  of  the  federal  army  filled  the  Winne- 
bagoes with  such  respect  for  the  power  of  the  United  States  that 
the  disturbance  was  quelled  before  it  had  fairly  begun.  At  this 
time  the  tribe  numbered  nearly  7,000.  It  might  also  be  men- 
tioned that  a  few  of  the  tribe  secretly  joined  the  Sauks  and  Foxes 
in  the  Black  Hawk  War  of  1832. 

Smallpox  visited  the  tribe  twice  before  1836,  and  in  that 
year  more  than  one-fourth  of  the  tribe  died.  Mr.  George  Catlin, 
famous  painter  of  the  Indians,  made  the  statement,  when  at 
Prairie  du  Chien  in  1836,  that,  "The  only  war  that  suggests  it- 
self to  the  eye  of  the  traveler  through  their  country  is  the  war 
of  sympathy  and  pity." 


*  "  The  Omaha  Tribe,"  by  Alice  C.  Fletcher  and  Francis  La  Flesche, 
Eth.   Ann.    27,  pg.    611. 


REMOVAL  TO  IOWA 


Historical  evidence  reveals  the  fact  that  at  one  time  the 
northern  part  of  Winneshiek  county  formed  a  small  part  of  the 
vast  hunting  grounds  of  the  Sioux  Indians,  and  that  the  south- 
ern portion  was  given  over  to  the  Sauks  and  Foxes.  In  a  coun- 
cil held  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  August  19,  1825,  a  boundary  line 
was  established  between  the  Sioux,  on  the  north,  and  the  Sauks 
and  Foxes,  on  the  south.  The  principal  object  of  this  treaty  was 
to  make  peace  between  these  contending  tribes  as  to  the  limits 
of  their  respective  hunting  grounds  in  Iowa. 

This  boundary  line  began  at  the  mouth  of  the  Upper  Iowa 
river  and  followed  the  stream,  which  traverses  Winneshiek 
county,  to  its  source.  In  order  to  decrease  still  further  the  en- 
counters between  the  Sauks  and  Foxes,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  Sioux,  on  the  other,  the  United  States  secured,  at  a  council 
held  at  Prairie  du  Chien  July  15,  1830,  a  strip  of  territory  twenty 
miles  wide  on  each  side  of  the  boundary  line  already  established 
and  extending  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  east  fork  of  the  Des 
Moines.  This  strip,  forty  miles  in  width,  was  termed  the  "Neu- 
tral Ground."  The  tribes  on  either  side  were  to  hunt  and  fish  on 
it  unmolested,  a  privilege  they  ceased  to  enjoy  when  this  terri- 
tory was  ceded  to  the  Winnebagoes.  In  this  way  the  tract  of 
land  now  known  as  Winneshiek  county  became  a  part  of  the 
Neutral  Ground. 

September  15,  1832,  the  Winnebagoes  ceded  to  the  United 
States  their  lands  south  of  the  Wisconsin  and  Fox  rivers,  east  of 
the  Mississippi.  The  government  on  its  part,  by  this  treaty 
granted  to  the  Winnebagoes  "to  be  held  as  other  Indian  lands 


are  held,  that  part  of  the  tract  of  country  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Mississippi  river  known  as  the  Neutral  Ground,  embraced  with- 
in the  following  limits."  The  boundaries  specified  confined  the 
Winnebagoes  to  that  portion  of  the  Neutral  Ground  extending 
forty  miles  west  of  the  Mississippi.  By  the  terms  of  this  treaty 
they  were  to  be  paid  $10,000  annually  for  twenty-seven  years, 
beginning  in  September,  1833. 

November  I,  1837,  a  treaty  was  concluded  with  the  Winne- 
bagoes at  Washington,  by  the  provisions  of  which  they  ceded  to 
the  United  States  the  remainder  of  their  lands  on  the  east  side 
and  certain  interests  on  the  west  side  of  the  Mississippi  river, 
and  agreed  to  remove  to  a  portion  of  the  Neutral  Ground  in 
Northeastern  Iowa,  set  aside  for  them  in  the  previous  treaty  of 
September  15,  1832.  This  treaty  of  1837  was  loudly  proclaimed 
by  the  tribe  to  be  a  fraud.  It  was  stated  that  the  delegation 
which  visited  Washington  in  that  year  had  no  authority  to  exe- 
cute such  an  instrument.  Chiefs,  also,  who  were  of  this  party  all 
made  the  same  declaration.  * 

The  first  attempt  to  remove  the  Winnebagoes  was  made  in 
1840,  when  a  considerable  number  were  induced  to  move  to  the 
Turkey  river.  That  year  a  portion  of  the  Fifth  and  Eighth  regi- 
ments of  U.  S.  infantry  came  to  Portage,  Wis.,  to  conduct  their 
removal.  Antoine  Grignon  and  others  were  connected  with  this 
force  as  interpreters. 

Two  large  boats  were  provided  to  transport  the  Indians 
down  the  Wisconsin  river  to  Prairie  du  Chien.  Captain  Sum- 
ner,  who  later  was  a  commanding  officer  at  Fort  Atkinson, 
secured  250  Winnebagoes  in  southern  Wisconsin.  These  were 
also  taken  to  Prairie  du  Chien.  They  first  disliked  the  idea  of 
going  on  to  the  Neutral  Ground,  because  on  the  south  were  the 
Sauks  and  Foxes,  and  on  the  north  were  the  Sioux,  and  with 


*  Wisconsin  Archeologist,  Vol.  6,  No.  3,  pg.  112. 


these  tribes  they  were  not  on  friendly  terms.  Considerable  re- 
sentment was  felt  by  the  Sauks  and  Foxes  towards  the  Winne- 
bagoes  for  having  delivered  Black  Hawk  over  to  the  whites, 
although  previous  to  this  occasion  the  Winnebagoes  had  been 
in  intimate  relationship  with  these  tribes.  However,  they  soon 
grew  to  love  the  Iowa  reservation. 


SOCIAL  ORGANIZATION 


And  they  painted  on  the  grave-posts 
On  the  graves  yet  unforgotten, 
Each  his  own  ancestral  Totem, 
Each  the  symbol  of  his  household; — 

— The  Song  of  Hiawatha. 


In  each  tribe  there  existed,  on  the  basis  of  kinship  a  divi- 
sion, into  clans  and  gentes.  The  names  given  to  these  divisions 
were  usually  those  of  the  animals,  birds,  reptiles,  or  inanimate 
objects  from  which  their  members  claimed  descent,  or  which 
were  regarded  as  guardian  deities  common  to  them  all;  these 
were  known  as  their  totems. 

The  term  "clan"  implies  descent  in  the  female,  and  "gens" 
in  the  male  line.  Clans  and  gentes  were  generally  organized  into 
phratries ;  and  phratries,  into  tribes.  A  phratry  was  an  organi- 
zation for  ceremonial  and  other  festivals. 

The  Winnebago  social  organization  was  based  on  two  phra- 
tries, known  as  the  Upper,  or  Air,  and  the  Lower,  or  Earth, 
divisions.  The  Upper  division  contained  four  clans:  (i)  Thun- 
der-bird, (2)  War  People,  (3)  Eagle,  (4)  Pigeon  (extinct) ;  while 
the  Lower  division  contained  eight  clans:  (i)  Bear,  (2)  Wolf, 
(3)  Water-spirit,  (4)  Deer,  (5)  Elk,  (6)  Buffalo,  (7)  Fish,  (8) 
Snake. 

The  Thunder-bird,  and  Bear,  clans  were  regarded  as  the 
leading  clans  of  their  respective  phratries.  Both  had  definite 
functions.  The  lodge  of  the  former  was  the  peace  lodge,  over 
which  the  chief  of  the  tribe  presided,  while  the  lodge  of  the  Bear 
clan  was  the  war,  or  disciplinary,  lodge.  Each  clan  had  a  num- 


her  of  individual  cutsoms,  relating  to  birth,  the  naming-feast, 
death,  and  the  funeral-wake.  An  Upper  individual  must  marry 
a  Lower  individual,  and  vice  versa. 

When  Carver,  an  early  traveler,  first  came  in  contact  with 
the  Winnebagoes,  their  chief  was  a  woman.  The  man,  how- 
ever, was  the  head  of  each  family.  Where  clans  existed,  a  man 
could  become  a  member  of  any  particular  clan  only  by  birth, 
adoption,  or  transfer  in  infancy  from  his  mother's  to  his  father's 
clan,  or  vice  versa.  The  place  of  woman  in  a  tribe  was  not  that 
of  a  slave  or  beast  of  burden.  The  existence  of  the  gentile  or- 
ganization, in  most  tribes  with  descent  in  the  female  line,  forbade 
that  she  be  subjected  to  any  such  indignity. 

Dr.  J.  O.  Dorsey  obtained  a  list  of  the  gentes  of  the  Hot- 
cangara,  or  Winnebagoes.*  They  were  (i)  Shungikikarachada 
('Wolf');  (2)  Honchikikarachada  ('Black  Bear');  (3)  Huwani- 
kikarachada  ('Elk');  (4)  Wakanikikarachada  ('Snake');  (5) 
Waninkikikarachada  ('Bird');  (6)  Cheikikarachada  ('Buffalo'): 
(7)  Chaikikarachada  ('Deer') ;  (8)  Wakchekhiikikarachada 
('Water-monster').  The  Bird  gens  was  composed  of  four  sub- 
gentes,  namely:  (a)  Hichakhshepara  ('Eagle'),  (b)  Ruchke 
('Pigeon'),  (c)  Kerechun  ('Hawk'),  (d)  Wakanchara  ('Thunder- 
bird').  It  seems  probable  that  each  gens  was  thus  subdivided 
into  four  sub-gentes. 

In  1843  tney  were  on  the  Neutral  Ground  in  different  bands, 
the  principal  one,  called  the  School  band,  occupying  territory 
along  the  Turkey  river. 


•  The   late  J.  Owen  Dorsey  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology, 
in  Bull.  30,  pg.  961. 


MANNERS  AND  CUSTOMS 


The  Winnebagoes  are  distinctly  a  timber  people,  and  always 
confined  themselves  to  the  larger  streams.  In  early  days  their 
wearing  apparel  consisted  commonly  of  a  breechclout,  mocca- 
sins, leggings,  and  robes  of  dressed  skins.  The  advent  among 
them  of  the  whites  enabled  them  to  add  blankets,  cloths,  and 
ornaments  to  their  scanty  wardrobes. 

Jonathan  Emerson  Fletcher,  the  Indian  agent  at  the  Turkey 
river,  furnished  Mr.  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft,  LL.  D.,  at  one  time 
Indian  agent  for  Wisconsin  Territory  and  author  of  "Historical 
and  Statistical  Information  Respecting  the  History,  Condition 
and  Prospects  of  the  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States,"  a  des- 
cription of  the  costume  of  the  Winnebagoes,  from  which  the 
following  is  condensed* :  "White  blankets  are  preferred  in 
winter,  and  colored  in  the  summer.  Red  is  a  favorite  color 
among  the  young,  and  green  with  the  aged.  Calico  shirts,  cloth 
leggings,  and  buckskin  moccasins  are  worn  by  both  sexes.  In 
addition  to  the  above  articles,  the  women  wear  a  broadcloth 
petticoat,  or  mantelet,  suspended  from  the  hips  and  extending 
below  the  knee. 

"Wampum,  ear-bobs,  rings,  bracelets,  and  bells  are  the  most 
common  ornaments  worn  by  them.  Head-dresses  ornamented 
with  eagle's  feathers  are  worn  by  the  warriors  on  public  occa- 
sions. The  chiefs  wear  nothing  peculiar  to  designate  their  office, 
except  it  be  medals  received  from  the  President  of  the  United 
States. 

*  Wisconsin    Archeologist,   Vol.    6,   No.    3,   pg.    121. 


"Some  of  the  young  men  and  women  paint  their  blankets 
with  a  variety  of  colors  and  figures.  A  large  majority  of  the 
young  and  middle-aged  of  both  sexes  paint  their  faces  when 
they  dress  for  a  dance. 

"Old  and  young  women  divide  their  hair  from  the  forehead 
to  the  back  of  the  crown,  and  wear  it  collected  in  a  roll  on  the 
back  of  the  neck,  confined  with  ribbons  and  bead-strings.  The 
men  and  boys  wear  their  hair  cut  similar  to  the  whites,  except 
that  they  all  wear  a  small  quantity  on  the  back  of  the  crown, 
long  and  braided,  which  braids  are  tied  at  the  end  with  a  ribbon. 
The  men  have  but  little  beard  which  is  usually  plucked  out  by 
tweezers." 

One  style  of  Winnebago  wigwam  consisted  of  an  arched 
frame-work  of  poles  firmly  set  in  the  ground  and  lashed  together 
with  strips  of  bark  and  so  arranged  as  to  give  it  sloping  sides 
and  a  rounded  top.  Cross-pieces  of  wood  secured  the  poles  to 
one  another.  The  roof  and  sides  were  covered  with  pieces  of 
bark,  or  matting.  The  general  outline  was  round  or  elliptical. 
Conical  lodges  were  employed  chiefly  in  the  summer  time.  Fur 
robes,  matting,  and  blankets  served  for  bedding.  Branches  were 
heaped  around  the  side  walls,  and  on  these,  covered  with  blan- 
kets, served  as  a  bed. 

Mr.  Fletcher  stated  *  that  the  lodges  at  the  Turkey  river, 
Iowa,  were  "from  twelve  to  forty  feet  in  length,  and  from  ten 
to  twenty  feet  in  width,  and  fifteen  feet  in  height  from  the  ground 
to  the  top  of  the  roof.  The  largest  would  accommodate  three 
families  of  ten  persons  each.  They  generally  have  two  doors. 
Fires,  one  for  each  family,  are  made,  along  the  space  through 
the  center.  The  smoke  escapes  through  apertures  in  the  roof. 
The  summer  lodge  is  of  lighter  materials  and  is  portable." 

*  Wisconsin    Archeologist,   Vol.    6,    No.    3,    pg.    124,    condensed    from 
Information  furnished  to  H.  R.  Schoolcraft. 


Council  houses  and  other  structures  were  erected  in  each 
village.  Mr.  Oliver  Lamere  states :  "It  is  said  that  all  of  their 
councils  were  held  at  the  Turkey  river,  as  that  was  their  agency 
at  the  time.  Usually  everything  went  as  the  chiefs  wanted  it." 
Regarding  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Atkinson,  Mr.  H.  J.  Goddard 
says :  "There  were  two  Indian  camping  grounds  south  of  here, 
one  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  and  the  other  half  a  mile,  distant. 
One  had  about  50  wigwams,  and  the  other  between  300  and 
400.  They  took  poles  and  stuck  them  in  the  ground,  then  bent 
them  over  and  tied  the  tops  together  and  covered  them  with 
bark.  The  bark  was  pealed  from  the  water-  or  slippery-elm  trees 
during  the  spring." 

Bark  served  the  Indians  in  a  multitude  of  ways.  It  was 
stripped  from  trees  at  the  proper  season  by  hacking  it  around 
so  that  it  could  be  taken  off  in  sheets  of  the  desired  length.  The 
Winnebagoes  also  made  a  kind  of  drink  from  bark.  Mr.  Lamere 
says,  "They  also  made  a  matting  from  reeds  sewed  or  matted 
together  with  strings  made  out  of  bass-wood  bark;  of  course, 
they  used  canvas  when  they  could  purchase  it,  but  their  perma- 
nent lodges  would  be  of  bark." 

It  was  the  man's  duty  to  protect  his  village  and  family,  and 
by  hunting  to  provide  meat  and  skins.  The  women  dried  the 
meat,  dressed  the  hides,  made  the  clothing,  and,  in  general,  per- 
formed all  the  household  duties.  The  processes  employed  for 
dressing  skins  were  various,  such  as  fleshing,  scraping,  braining, 
stripping,  graining,  and  working.  In  the  domestic  economy  of 
the  Indian,  skins  were  his  most  valued  and  useful  material,  as 
they  also  later  became  his  principal  trading  asset.  A  list  of  the 
articles  made  of  this  material  would  embrace  a  great  many  of 
the  Indian's  principal  possessions. 

Moccasins  and  other  articles  made  of  skin  were  often  cov- 
ered with  artistic  bead-work,  replete  with  tribal  symbolism.  The 


Winnebagoes  also  had,  not  long  ago,  a  well  developed  porcupine 
quill  industry. 

In  common  with  other  tribes  the  Winnebagoes  were  accus- 
tomed to  prepare  dried  and  smoked  fish  and  meat.  Nuts,  wild 
fruits,  and  edible  roots  of  various  kinds  were  also  used  for  food. 
Corn  was  raised  and  such  vegetables  as  squash,  pumpkins,  beans, 
potatoes  and  watermelons.  Corn  was  often  eaten  green,  but 
usually  after  it  had  been  dried,  ground,  and  made  into  bread ;  it 
was  sometimes  boiled  with  meat.  At  the  Turkey  river  near  Fort 
Atkinson  the  Indians  cached  their  corn  in  holes  dug  in  the 
ground  three  or  four  feet  square  and  about  three  feet  deep. 
Wild  rice  was  raised  and  was  prepared  by  being  boiled  with 
meat  and  vegetables.  Shelled  dried  corn,  dried  hulled  fruit,  and 
nuts  were  cached  in  storage  pits  for  future  use.  Tobacco  was 
raised,  but  only  in  small  quantities.  Notwithstanding  the  abund- 
ance of  animal  and  vegetal  food  that  the  fields  and  forest 
afforded,  the  Indians  suffered  occasionally  from  famine.  For 
wood  the  limbs  of  trees  were  used,  but  not  the  trunk;  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Fort  Atkinson  evidence  remains  to-day  of  this 
practice. 

Of  the  Winnebago  marriage  customs  Moses  Paquette,  who 
went  (1845)  to  tne  Presbyterian  school  at  the  Turkey  river, 
stated*  in  1882 :  "Presents  to  the  parents  of  a  woman,  by  either 
the  parents  of  the  man  or  the  man  himself,  if  accepted,  usually 
secure  her  for  a  partner.  However  much  the  woman  may  dis- 
like the  man,  she  considers  it  her  bounden  duty  to  go  and  at 
least  try  to  live  with  him.  Divorce  is  easy  among  them.  There 
are  no  laws  compelling  them  to  live  together.  Sometimes  there 
are  marriages  for  a  specified  time,  say  a  few  months  or  a  year. 
When  separations  occur,  the  woman  usually  takes  the  children 
with  her  to  the  home  of  her  parents.  But  so  long  as  the  union 
exists,  it  is  deemed  to  be  sacred,  and  there  are  few  instances  of 

•  Wisconsin  Archeologist,  Vol.  6,  No.  3,  pg.  126. 


infidelity.  Quite  a  number  of  the  bucks  have  two  wives,  who 
live  on  apparently  equal,  free,  and  easy  terms ;  but  although  there 
is  no  rule  about  the  matter,  I  never  heard  of  any  of  the  men 
having  more  than  two  wives.  With  all  this  ease  of  divorce, 
numerous  Indian  couples  remain  true  to  each  other  for  life." 
Many  of  the  early  traders  took  Winnebago  wives. 

The  Indians  had  their  favorite  pastimes  and  games,  some  of 
which  were  played  by  the  women  and  children.  There  were  also 
several  kinds  of  dances  for  various  occasions. 

Regarding  their  burial  customs,  the  graves  were  in  later 
times  protected  by  logs,  stones,  brush,  or  pickets.  With  the 
bodies  of  the  deceased  were  buried  their  personal  possessions 
or  symbolical  objects.  With  the  corpse  of  a  woman  were  buried 
her  implements  of  labor.  The  graves  of  chiefs  and  persons  of 
distinction  were  sometimes  enclosed  with  pickets.  Over  such  a 
grave  it  was  customary  to  place  a  white  flag.  The  blackening  of 
the  face  by  mourners  was  a  common  custom.  In  the  winter  the 
remains  were  encased  and  placed  on  a  scaffold  and  then  elevated 
into  the  branches  of  a  tree,  or  placed  between  two  trees.  In  the 
spring  the  permanent  burial  was  made  in  a  shallow  grave.  Over 
this  was  erected  an  A-shaped  structure,  consisting  of  two  short, 
forked  posts,  which,  placed  one  at  each  end  of  the  grave,  sup- 
ported a  cross-piece.  Against  this  frame-work  were  placed 
wooden  slabs. 

Lengthwise  the  graves  at  the  Turkey  river  extended  from 
from  east  to  west,  in  order  that  the  dead  might  "look  towards 
the  happy  land"  that  was  supposed  to  lie  somewhere  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  setting  sun.  The  body  of  the  dead  was  sometimes 
placed  in  the  grave  in  a  sitting  posture,  the  head  and  chest  ex- 
tending above  the  ground.  A  pipe  of  tobacco  was  buried  with 
an  adult  male,  and  a  war-club  was  placed  in  the  grave  of  a  war- 
rior. The  hieroglyphics  painted  on  the  post  at  the  head  of  a 


warrior's  grave  represented  the  exploits  of  those  who  danced 
about  the  grave  at  his  funeral. 

Mr.  Goddard  says:  "There  were  about  a  dozen  or  more 
Indian  graves  close  to  the  fort,  but  these  have  long  since  been 
obliterated.  An  Indian  child,  about  seven  or  eight  years  of  age, 
was  put  above  ground  in  a  coffin  placed  between,  and  near  the 
top  of,  four  cedar  posts  set  in  the  ground,  and  about  seven  or 
eight  feet  high.  I  was  told  by  the  Indians  who  later  traveled 
through  the  country  quite  frequently  that  the  child  belonged  to 
a  Chippewa  woman  who  was  visiting  the  Winnebagoes.  Later, 
a  man  who  stopped  at  my  place  took  from  inside  the  heavily 
beaded  blanket,  in  which  the  child  was  wrapped  when  buried,  a 
round  mirror  ornament  with  a  loop  for  suspension,  about  three 
inches  in  diameter,  on  the  back  of  which  was  a  picture  of  Gen- 
eral Jackson. 

"An  Indian  grave  was  on  the  top  of  a  hill  in  Jackson  town- 
ship, section  twenty.  The  Indians  told  me  that  a  chief  called 
Black  Bear  was  buried  there ;  however,  there  is  nothing  further 
authentic  to  prove  this.  The  grave  was  surrounded  by  a  stock- 
ade made  of  boards  split  out  of  logs  and  was  seven  feet  high ;  it 
enclosed  a  space  about  seven  by  eight  feet  in  area.  The  boards 
were  spiked  together. 

"Near  the  Little  Turkey  river,  a  fork  of  the  Turkey  river, 
at  a  point  about  one  and  one-half  miles  from  Waucoma  in  Fay- 
ette  county,  was  a  farm  of  about  100  acres  broken  up  (suppos- 
edly by  the  government)  and  owned  by  a  chief  called  Whaling 
Thunder  [evidently  Whirling  Thunder,  but  not  definitely 
known].  Here  Whaling  (?)  Thunder  died,  and  on  his  land  was 
a  group  of  about  thirty  graves,  six  Indians  being  buried  in  one 
grave." 

Hon.  Abraham  Jacobson,  of  Springfield  township,  stated* 

*  "  Reminiscences  of  Pioneer  Norwegians,"  by  Hon.  A.  Jacobson  in 
"The  Illustrated  Historical  Atlas  of  Winneshiek  County,  Iowa,"  1905, 
Sec.  II,  pg.  12. 


that,  "On  the  banks  of  the  Upper  Iowa  river  many  Indian  graves 
were  found.  The  bodies  were  buried  in  a  sitting  position,  with 
the  head  sometimes  above  ground.  A  forked  stick  put  up  like  a 
post  at  each  end  of  the  grave  held  a  ridge  pole  on  which  leaned 
thin  boards  placed  slanting  to  each  side  of  the  grave.  Thus  each 
grave  presented  the  appearance  of  a  gable  of  a  small  house." 

On  Mr.  J.  I.  Tavener's  land  in  West  Decorah  are  three 
mounds,  or  artificial  hillocks,  now  nearly  obliterated  by  culti- 
vation. These  mounds  are  circular  in  form  and,  before  being 
worn  down  by  the  plow,  were  low,  broad,  round-  topped  cones 
from  two  and  one-half  to  three  feet  high  in  the  center.  The 
largest  of  the  group  was  about  forty  feet  in  diameter.  Conical 
mounds  are,  as  a  rule,  depositories  of  the  dead.  As  yet,  no 
bones  have  been  exhumed  from  any  of  these  mounds,  so  that  it 
is  not  known  at  present  what  purpose  they  served ;  but  it  seems 
probable  that  they  were  burial  mounds. 

The  early  settlers  furnished  evidence  of  the  existence  of 
many  Indian  graves  throughout  the  county,  notably  where  the 
city  of  Decorah  is  located.  These  graves  are  now  almost  im- 
perceptible. 


RELIGION 


Ye  whose  hearts  are  fresh  and  simple, 
Who  have  faith  in  God  and  Nature, 
Who  believe,  that  in  all  ages 
Every  human  heart  is  human, 
That  in  even  savage  bosoms 
There  are  1'ongings,  yearnings,  strivings 
For  the  good  they  comprehend  not, 
That  the  feeble  hands  and  helpless, 
Groping  blindly  in  the  darkness, 
Touch  God's  right  hand  in  that  darkness 
And  are  lifted  up  and  strengthened; — 
Listen  to  this  simple  story, — 

—The  Song  of  Hiawatha. 


The  fundamental  religious  concept  of  the  Indian  is  the  be- 
lief in  the  existence  of  magic  power  in  animate  and  inanimate 
objects.  This  gave  rise  to  their  idea  that  there  are  men  who 
possess  supernatural  power.  This  magic  power  is  called  Man'una 
(Earth-maker)*  by  the  Winnebagoes,  and  corresponds  to  the 
Gitchi  Manito  of  the  Central  Algonquian  tribes,  and  Wakandtf 
of  the  Siouan  tribes.  As  a  verb,  "wakanda"  signifies  "to  reckon 
as  holy  or  sacred,  to  worship ;"  the  noun  is  "wakan"  and  means 
"a  spirit,  something  consecrated."  "Wakan,"  as  an  adjective,  is 
defined  as  "spiritual,  sacred,  consecrated,  wonderful,  incompre- 
hensible, mysterious."  "Wakan"  and  various  other  forms  of 
that  word  are  of  common  occurrence  in  the  Winnebago  lan- 
guage. 

The  Winnebago  mythology  consists  of  large  cycles  relating 
to  the  five  personages,  Trickster,  Bladder,  Turtle,  He-who- 

•  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology.  Bulletin  30,  part  2,  pg.  960. 
t  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  Bulletin  30,  part  2,  pg.  897. 


wears-heads-as-earrings,  and  the  Hare.  Other  deities  known  to 
them  are  Disease-giver,  Sun,  Moon,  Morning  Star,  the  Spirits  of 
the  Night,  One-horn,  the  Earth,  and  the  Water. 

The  Indian  had  no  understanding  of  a  single,  all-powerful 
deity,  the  "Great  Spirit,"  till  the  Europeans,  often  unconsciously, 
informed  him  of  their  own  belief.  He  believed  in  a  multitude  of 
spirits  that  were  the  source  of  good  or  bad  fortune,  and  whom 
he  feared  to  offend.*  He  seems  to  have  had  no  conception  of  a 
future  punishment.  The  mortuary  rites  of  the  Winnebagoes, 
and  other  tribes,  testify  to  the  fact  that  they  believed  in  a  life 
after  death ;  but  as  to  the  nature  of  "the  happy  land  of  the  west" 
their  ideas  were  vague. 

The  Winnebagoes  had  two  important  tribal  ceremonies,  the 
Mankani,  or  Medicine  Dance,  and  the  Wagigo,  or  Winter  Feast. 
The  Medicine  Dance  could  take  place  only  in  summer;  and  the 
Winter  Feast,  only  in  winter.  The  Medicine  Dance  was  a  secret 
society,  ungraded,  into  which  men  and  women  could  be  initiated 
on  payment  of  a  certain  amount  of  money.  The  purpose  of  the 
society  was  the  prolongation  of  life  and  the  instilling  of  certain 
virtues,  none  of  which  related  to  war.  These  virtues  were  in- 
stilled by  means  of  the  "shooting"  ceremony,  the  pretended 
shooting  of  a  shell,  contained  in  an  otter-skin  bag,  into  the  body 
of  the  one  to  be  initiated.  The  ceremony  was  performed  in  a 
long  tent  occupied  by  five  ceremonial  bands,  whose  positions  of 
honor  depended  on  the  order  of  invitation.  The  general  cere- 
mony itself  was  public,  but  a  secret  vapor-bath  ceremony  pre- 
ceded, and  a  secret  ceremony  intervened  between  the  first  and 
second  parts. 

The  Winter  Feast  was  a  war  feast  and  the  only  distinctively 

clan  ceremonial  among  the  Winnebagoes.     Each  clan  had  a 

sacred  bundle,  which  was  in  the  hands  of  some  male  individual, 

and  was  handed  down  from  one  generation  to  another,  care 

•  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  Bulletin  30,  part  2,  pg.  284. 


being  always  taken  to  keep  it  in  the  same  clan.  The  purpose  of 
this  feast  was  to  appease  all  the  supposed  deities  known  to 
them.  Mr.  Fletcher,  the  agent  at  the  Turkey  river,  gave  Mr. 
Schoolcraft  a  description  of  the  War  dance  and  the  Medicine 
society. 

There  were  a  number  of  other  important  ceremonies,  of 
which  the  best  known  were  the  Herucka  and  the  Buffalo  Dance. 
The  latter  was  performed  in  the  spring,  and  had  for  its  purpose 
the  magical  calling  of  the  buffalo  herds.  All  those  who  pre- 
tended to  have  had  supernatural  communication  with  the  Buffalo 
spirit  might  participate  in  the  ceremony,  irrespective  of  clan. 
It  seems  that  the  object  of  the  Herucka  was  to  stimulate  an 
heroic  spirit. 

Moses  Paquette  gave  Dr.  Thwaites  of  Wisconsin  a  brief 
account  of  the  Buffalo  Dance,  which  he  describes,  as  "Probably 
the  most  popular  of  their  dances."  "They  represent,"  he  con- 
tinues, "themselves  to  be  bisons,  imitating  the  legitimate  motions 
and  noises  of  the  animal,  and  introducing  a  great  many  others 
that  would  quite  astonish  the  oldest  buffalo  in  existence.  Of 
course  it  has  been  a  long  time  since  any  Winnebagoes  ever  saw 
buffaloes;  their  antics  are  purely  traditionary,  handed  down 
from  former  generations  of  dancers."* 

Other  dances  and  feasts  were  the  Snake,  Scalp,  Grizzly- 
bear,  Sore-eye,  and  Ghost  dances.  Little  Hill,  a  Winnebago 
chief,  gave  Mr.  Fletcher  an  account  of  their  creation,  which,  in 
all  its  parts,  bears  testimony  to  their  belief  in  numerous  spirits,  f 
Mr.  Lamere  states  that,  "The  Buffalo  Dance  was  carried  on  by 
the  Winnebagoes  for  a  long  time,  but  the  dance  that  they 
seemed  to  have  liked  and  indulged  in  mostly  while  there  [Iowa] 
was  the  Fish  Dance,  which  was  only  a  dance  of  amusement. 
The  Herucka  dance  was  adopted  from  some  of  the  western  tribes 

•  Wisconsin  Archeologist,  Vol.  6,  No.  3,  pg.  130. 
t "  Red  Men  of  Iowa,"  by  A.  R.  Fulton. 


and  was  brought  back  by  the  Winnebagoes  who  enlisted  as 
scouts  during  the  Sioux  outbreak  in  1862  and  was  introduced 
after  the  Winnebagoes  came  here  to  Nebraska;"  he  further 
states, — "The  Thunder-bird  was  held  in  awe  by  the  Winne- 
bagoes, and  they  believed  that  thunder-storms  were  caused  by 
these  beings,  the  lightning  being  caused  by  the  opening  and 
closing  of  their  eyes ;  the  Winnebagoes  do  not  describe  them  as 
birds,  but  beings  of  the  human  type  and  always  wearing  cedar 
boughs  on  their  head,  or  hair,  and  carrying  flat  war-clubs." 


GENEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY  OF  THE 
DECORAH  FAMILY 


How  fair  is  Decorah, 

Our  city  named  so 
For  the  Indians  that  roamed 

O'er  its  hills  years  ago, 
Whose  well  trodden  pathways 

The  story  could  tell 
How  from  all  directions 

They  came  here  to  dwell. 

In  fitting  remembrance 

These  lines  we  inscribe 
To  Waukon  Decorah, 

A  chief  of  their  tribe. 
Whose  name  is  a  landmark 

And  honored  shall  stand 
For  heeding  the  fiat 

"Move  on,  yield  your  land." 

And  Indians  that  peopled 

This  beautiful  site, 
Reluctant  but  friendly 

Relinquished  their  right. 
They  left  us  this  valley 

With  beauties  untold, 
Gave  way  to  the  settlers, 

Our  pioneers  bold. 

Things  have  changed,  to  be  sure, 

In  this  valley, — still 
'Tis  but  sixty  odd  years 

Since  they  camped  on  yon  hill 
Where  now  stands  the  courthouse 

A  pride  of  our  town, 
The  heart  of  the  county, 

Of  widespread  renown. 

— Mra.  John  C.  Hezom. 


Hopokoelcau,  or  "Glory  of  the  Morning,"  also  known  as  the 
Queen  of  the  Winnebagoes,  was  the  mother  of  a  celebrated  line 
of  chiefs,  all  of  whom,  well  known  to  border  history,  bore  in 
some  form  the  name  Decorah.  Her  Indian  name  is  also  given 
as  Wa-ho-po-e-kau.  She  was  the  daughter  of  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal Winnebago  chiefs.  There  is  no  record  of  the  date  of  her 
birth  or  death. 

She  became  the  wife  of  Sabrevoir  De  Carrie,  who  probably 
came  to  Wisconsin  with  the  French  army,  in  which  he  was  an 
officer,  in  1728.  He  resigned  his  commission  in  1729,  and  be- 
came a  fur-trader  among  the  Winnebagoes,  subsequently  marry- 
ing "Glory  of  the  Morning."  He  was  adopted  into  her  clan 
and  highly  honored.  After  seven  or  eight  years,  during  which 
time  two  sons  and  a  daughter  were  born  to  him,  he  left  her, 
taking  with  him  the  daughter.  The  Queen  refused  to  go  with 
her  husband,  and  remained  in  her  home  with  her  two  sons. 
"The  result  is  to-day  that  one-half  or  two-thirds  of  the  Winne- 
bago tribe  have  more  or  less  of  the  Decorah  blood  in  their 
veins."*  Through  the  intervening  generations  there  has  been 
no  other  mixture  of  Caucasian  blood,  so  that  the  Decorahs  of 
to-day  are  probably  as  nearly  full-bloods  as  any  Indians  in  any 
part  of  the  country. 

De  Carrie  returned  to  Canada,  re-entered  the  army,  and  was 
killed  at  Ste  Foye  in  the  spring  of  1760.  The  daughter  whom 
he  took  with  him,  became  the  wife  of  a  trader,  Constant  Keri- 
goufili,  whose  son,  Sieur  Laurent  Fily  (so-called),  died  about 
1846. 

Captain  Jonathan  Carver,  who  visited  the  Queen  in  1766, 
states  that  she  received  him  graciously,  and  luxuriously  enter- 
tained him  during  the  four  days  he  remained  in  her  village, 
which  "contained  fifty  houses."  Her  two  sons,  "Being  the  de- 
scendants of  a  chief  on  the  mother's  side,  when  they  arrived  at 

•  Statement  by  Geo.   W.  Kingsley. 


manhood  *  *  *  *  assumed  the  dignity  of  their  rank  by 
inheritance.  They  were  generally  good  Indians  and  frequently 
urged  their  claims  to  the  friendship  of  the  whites,  by  saying 
they  were  themselves  half  white." 

Choulceka  Dekaury,  or  Spoon  Decorah,  sometimes  called  the 
Ladle,  was  the  eldest  son  of  Sabrevoir  De  Carrie  and  Hopokoe- 
kau.  The  name  is  also  rendered  Chau-ka-ka  and  Chou-ga-rah. 
After  having  been  made  chief  he  became  the  leader  of  attacks  on 
the  Chippewas  during  a  war  between  them  and  the  Winne- 
bagoes,  but  he  maintained  friendly  relations  with  the  whites. 
He  was  the  ancestor  of  the  Portage  branch  of  the  family.  It  was 
principally  through  his  influence  that  the  treaty  of  June  3,  1816, 
at  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  was  brought  about. 

His  wife,  Flight  of  Geese,  was  a  daughter  of  Nawkaw 
(known  also  as  Carrymaunee  and  Walking  Turtle),  whose  man- 
agement of  tribal  affairs  was  decidedly  peaceful.  According  to 
La  Ronde,  Choukeka's  death  occurred  in  1816,  when  he  was 
"quite  aged."  He  left  six  sons  and  five  daughters.  The  sons 
were:  (i)  Konokah,  or  Old  Gray-headed  Decorah;  (2)  Augah, 
or  the  Black  Decorah,  named  by  La  Ronde,  Ruch-ka-scha-ka, 
or  White  Pigeon ;  (3)  Anaugah,  or  the  Raisin  Decorah,  named 
by  La  Ronde,  Chou-me-ne-ka-ka ;  (4)  Nah-ha-sauch-e-ka,  or 
Rascal  Decorah ;  (5)  Wau-kon-ga-ka,  or  the  Thunder  Hearer ; 
(6)  Ong-skaka,  or  White  Wolf,  who  died  young.  Three  of  the 
daughters  married  Indians.  One  married  a  trapper  named 
Dennis  De  Riviere  and  later  married  Perische  Grignon.  The 
other  married  Jean  Lecuyer. 

Cyrus  Thomas*  makes  the  statement  that,  "From  Chou- 
keka's daughters  who  married  white  men  are  descended  several 
well  known  families  of  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota." 

Chah-post-kaw-lcaw,  or  the  Buzzard  Decorah,  was  the  second 
son  of  De  Carrie  and  "Glory  of  the  Morning."  He  settled  at 

*  Of  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology. 


La  Crosse  in  1787,  with  a  band  of  Winnebagoes,  and  was  soon 
after  killed  there.  He  had  two  sons:  (i)  Big  Canoe,  or  One- 
eyed  Decorah ;  and  (2)  Wakun-ha-ga,  or  Snake  Skin,  known  as 
Waukon  Decorah. 

Old  Gray-Headed  Decorah,  called  by  the  whites  Konakah 
(eldest)  Decorah,  often  mentioned  as  Old  Dekaury,  was 
the  eldest  son  and  successor  of  Choukeka  Dekaury.  His 
common  Indian  name  was  Schachipkaka,  or  The  War 
Eagle.  The  signature  "De-ca-ri"  attached  to  the  treaty  of  Prai- 
rie des  Chiens  (as  the  word  is  frequently  spelled  in  early  docu- 
ments), Michigan  Territory,  August  19,  1825,  is  probably  that  of 
Old  Dekaury.  He  signed  the  treaty  of  Prairie  du  Chien,  Michi- 
gan Territory,  August  I,  1829,  as  "Hee-tsha-wau-sharp-skaw- 
kau,  or  White  War  Eagle.  "Among  those  representing  the  Fort 
Winnebago  deputation  at  the  treaty  of  Fort  Armstrong,  Rock 
Island,  111.,  September  15,  1832,  he  signed  as  "Hee-tshah-wau- 
saip-skaw-skaw,  or  White  War  Eagle,  De-kau-ray,  sr." 

Old  Decorah  was  born  in  1747,  and  died  at  Peten  well,  the 
high  rock  on  the  Wisconsin  river,  April  20,  1836,  about  ninety 
years  old.  Old  De-kau-ry's  town  contained  over  100  lodges, 
and  was  the  largest  of  the  Winnebago  villages.  Before  he  died 
he  called  a  Catholic  priest,  who  baptized  him  the  day  of  his 
death. 

Before  his  father's  death,  in  1816,  Old  Gray-headed  De- 
corah had  joined  a  band  of  Winnebagoes  who  took  part,  August 
2,  1813,  in  the  attack  led  by  General  Proctor,  with  500  regulars 
and  800  Indians,  on  Fort  Stephenson  on  lower  Sandusky  river, 
Ohio,  which  was  so  gallantly  defended  by  Major  George  Crog- 
han  with  a  force  of  150  Americans  and  only  one  cannon.  He 
also  fought  with  Proctor  and  Tecumseh,  a  celebrated  Shawnee 
chief,  at  the  battle  of  the  Thames,  Canada,  where  a  great  part 
of  the  British  army  was  either  slain  or  captured  by  the  American 
forces  under  General  Wm.  H.  Harrison,  October  5,  1813,  and 


where  Tecumseh  was  shot.  Old  Decorah  was  held  as  a  hostage 
for  the  delivery  of  Red  Bird,  a  war  chief,  during  the  so-called 
Winnebago  War.  Old  Decorah  gave  assurance  to  General 
Atkinson,  during  this  war,  of  the  peaceable  intentions  of  the 
Winnebagoes. 

It  was  while  Major  Zachary  Taylor  was  located  at  Prairie 
du  Chien  that  he  received  from  Old  Gray-headed  Decorah  a 
peace  pipe  now  in  the  State  Historical  Museum  at  Madison, 
Wis.  This  calumet  is  a  fine  specimen,  the  head  is  of  catlinite 
inlaid  with  lead  polished  to  look  like  silver.  The  stem,  or  wooden 
handle,  is  about  three  feet  long,  rather  rudely  carved. 

Mrs.  J.  H.  Kinzie  described*  him  as  "The  most  noble,  dig- 
nified, and  venerable  of  his  own  or  indeed  of  any  other  tribe. 
His  fine  Roman  countenance,  rendered  still  more  striking  by  his 
bald  head,  with  one  solitary  tuft  of  long  silvery  hair  neatly  tied 
and  falling  back  on  his  shoulders ;  his  perfectly  neat,  appropriate 
dress,  almost  without  ornament,  and  his  courteous  manner, 
never  laid  aside,  under  any  circumstances,  all  combined  to  give 
him  the  highest  place  in  the  consideration  of  all  who  knew  him." 

Mrs.  Kinzie  further  states  t  :  "The  noble  Old  Day-kau-ray 
came  one  day  from  the  Barribault  to  apprise  us  of  the  state  of 
his  village.  More  than  forty  of  his  people,  he  said,  had  now- 
been  for  many  days  without  food,  save  bark  and  roots.  My  hus- 
band accompanied  him  to  the  commanding  officer  to  tell  his 
story,  and  ascertain  if  any  amount  of  food  could  be  obtained 
from  that  quarter.  The  result  was  the  promise  of  a  small  allow- 
ance of  flour,  sufficient  to  alleviate  the  cravings  of  his  own 
family.  When  this  was  explained  to  the  chief  he  turned  away. 
'No,'  he  said,  'if  his  people  could  not  be  relieved,  he  and  his 
family  would  starve  with  them,'  and  he  refused  for  those  nearest 
and  dearest  to  him  the  proffered  succor  until  all  could  share 

*  "  Wau-Bun,"  pg.  89. 

t  Same  reference  as  above,  pg.  484. 


alike."  During  the  winter  of  1832-33  food  was  scarce  at  Fort 
Winnebago,  and  the  Indians  suffered  severely. 

Old  Day-kau-ray  delivered  an  address  on  education  to  the 
agent,  Mr.  Kinzie,  at  a  conference  held  with  the  Winnebago 
chiefs  in  1831,  in  regard  to  sending  the  children  of  the  Indians 
away  to  school.  The  following  quotation  is  from  his  speech  * : 
"The  white  man  does  not  live  like  the  Indian;  it  is  not  his  na- 
ture; neither  does  the  Indian  love  to  live  like  the  white  man. 
*  *  *  *  This  is  what  we  think.  If  we  change  our  minds  we 
will  let  you  know." 

The  known  sons  of  Old  Dekaury  were  (i)  Little  Decorah 
and  (2)  Spoon  Decorah. 

Big  Canoe,  or  One-eyed  Decorah,  a  son  of  Chatpost-kaw-kah, 
told  George  Galef  about  1855  that  he  had  but  one  brother, 
Waukon  Decorah.  One-eyed  Decorah's  Indian  name  was 
Wadge-hut-ta-kaw,  or  the  Big  Canoe.  The  signature,  Watch- 
ha-ta-kaw,  (by  Henry  M.  Rice,  his  delegate)  is  attached  to  the 
treaty  of  Washington,  October  13,  1846,  and  is  undoubtedly 
that  of  One-eyed  Decorah. 

He  was  born  about  1772,  and  was  fifteen  years  of  age  when 
his  father  settled  at  La  Crosse.  He  aided  in  the  capture  of 
Mackinaw,  July  17,  1812,  and  was  with  the  British  in  the  attack 
on  Fort  Stephenson,  August  2,  1813,  near  Fremont,  Ohio,  and 
with  McKay  at  the  capture  of  Prairie  du  Chien.  It  is  said  that 
he  signed  the  treaty  there  in  1825.  The  act  for  which  he  became 
celebrated  was  the  capture  of  Black  Hawk  and  the  Prophet,  in 
1832.  Black  Hawk's  force  was  pursued  by  General  Atkinson, 
who  completely  defeated  him  August  3,  1832.  The  famous 
Sauk  leader  and  the  Prophet  escaped  to  the  northward  and 

*  Smithsonian  Report,  1885,  part  2,  pg.  128. 

t  A  Wisconsin  pioneer  who  in  1851  removed  to  the  copper  Mississippi 
region,  where  he  was  judge,  state  senator,  etc.,  founding  the  village  of 
Galesville  and  the  academy  thereat.  He  wrote  a  history  of  the  Winne- 
bago Indians,  which  is  still  in  manuscript  form  in  the  Wisconsin  His- 
torical Society's  possession. 


sought  refuge  among  some  Winnebagoes,  whither  they  were 
followed  and  captured  by  One-eyed  Decorah  and  Chaetar  (an- 
other Winnebago),  who  delivered  him  to  General  Street  (a 
former  Winnebago  agent)  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  August  27,  1832. 
On  this  occasion  One-eyed  Decorah  made  the  following 
speech  :* 

"My  father,  I  now  stand  before  you.  When  we  parted  I 
told  you  I  would  return  soon,  but  I  could  not  come  any  sooner. 
We  had  to  go  a  great  distance.  You  see  we  have  done  what  you 
sent  us  to  do.  These  (pointing  to  the  prisoners)  are  the  two 
you  told  us  to  get.  We  have  done  what  you  told  us  to  do.  We 
always  do  what  you  tell  us,  because  we  know  it  is  for  our  good. 
Father,  you  told  us  to  get  these  men,  and  it  would  be  the  cause 
of  much  good  to  the  Winnebagoes.  We  have  brought  them,  but 
it  has  been  very  hard  for  us  to  do  so.  That  one  (Black  Hawk) 
was  a  great  way  off.  You  told  us  to  bring  them  to  you  alive ; 
we  have  done  so.  If  you  had  told  us  to  bring  their  heads  alone, 
we  would  have  done  so,  and  it  would  have  been  less  difficult  than 
what  we  have  done.  We  would  not  deliver  them  to  our  brother, 
the  chjef  of  the  warriors,  but  to  you,  because  we  know  you,  and 
we  believe  you  are  our  friend.  We  want  you  to  keep  them  safe ; 
if  they  are  to  be  hurt,  we  do  not  wish  to  see  it.  Wait  until  we 
are  gone  before  it  is  done.  Father,  many  little  birds  have  been 
flying  about  our  ears  of  late,  and  we  thought  they  whispered  to 
us  that  there  was  evil  intended  for  us ;  but  now  we  hope  these 
evil  birds  will  let  our  ears  alone.  We  know  you  are  our  friend 
because  you  took  our  part,  and  that  is  the  reason  we  do  what 
you  tell  us  to  do.  You  say  you  love  your  red  children ;  we  think 
we  love  you  as  much  as,  if  not  more  than,  you  love  us.  We 
have  confidence  in  you  and  you  may  rely  on  us.  We  have  been 
promised  a  great  deal  if  we  would  take  these  men — that  it 
would  do  much  good  to  our  people.  We  now  hope  to  see  what 

•  "  Red  Men  of  Iowa,"  pgf.  160. 


will  be  done  for  us.  We  have  come  in  haste ;  we  are  tired  and 
hungry.  We  now  put  these  men  into  your  hands.  We  have 
done  all  that  you  told  us  to  do." 

In  1832,  One-eyed  Decorah  married  two  wives  and  went  to 
live  on  the  Black  river,  Wis.  He  had  at  least  one  son,  Spoon 
Decorah.  Chas.  H.  Saunders  says.  "One-eyed  Decorah  has  one 
daughter,  Mrs.  Hester  Lowery,  still  living  in  Wisconsin.  Her 
Indian  name  is  No-jin-win-ka.  She  is  between  eighty-five  and 
ninety  years  old."  One-eyed  Decorah  was  living  in  Iowa  be- 
tween 1840  and  1848,  as  Moses  Paquette,  who  went  to  the  Pres- 
byterian school  at  the  Turkey  river,  says  that  he  saw  him  while 
he  was  at  school,  and  Decorah  was  then  an  old  man.  Big  Canoe 
disliked  to  leave  their  Iowa  reservation. 

Geo.  W.  Kingsley  says :  "One-eyed  Decorah  or  Big  Canoe, 
after  being  driver  around  by  the  United  States  Government  from 
the  Turkey  river  reservation,  Iowa,  to  Long  Prairie  in  northern 
Minnesota,  then  back  to  Blue  Earth,  southern  Minnesota,  his 
family  brought  the  old  chief  back  to  his  native  home  and  stamp- 
ing grounds  in  Wisconsin.  *  *  *  *  He  requested  his  chil- 
dren not  to  bury  him,  but  instead,  to  place  him  on  top  of  the 
ground  in  a  sitting  position,  and  so  it  was  done." 

He  lived  for  a  number  of  years  with  his  tribe  on  Decora's 
Prairie,  Wis.,  which  is  named  after  him;  there  is  also  a  bluff 
called  Decora's  Peak  back  from  the  Prairie  which  was  also 
named  after  him.  George  Gale  states :  "The  One-eyed  De 
Carry,  who  is  now  [about  1864]  about  ninety  years  old,  had  his 
cheedah  (or  wigwam)  and  family  during  the  summer  of  1862 
two  miles  west  of  Galesville,  Wis.,  and  a  part  of  the  summer  of 
1863  ne  was  near  New  Lisbon."  On  both  of  these  occasions 
Gale  interviewed  him  on  the  traditions  of  his  tribe  and  family. 
One-eyed  Decorah  (also  written  One-Eyed  Decorah)  died  near 
the  Tunnel,  in  Monroe  county,  not  far  from  Tomah,  Wis.,  in 


August,  1864.  A.  R.  Fulton  says* :  "While  young  he  [One- 
eyed  Decorah]  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  his  right  eye." 

Some  historiest  contain  the  statement  that,  "One-eyed  De- 
corah,  a  son  of  Waukon  Decorah,  was  a  drunkard  and  unworthy 
of  his  father;"  there  is  no  evidence,  however,  to  show  that  he 
was  more  debauched  than  other  chiefs,  for  nearly  all  Indians 
were  more  or  less  addicted  to  firewater.  That  he  was  a  son  of 
Waukon  Decorah  is  an  error,  as  One-eyed  Decorah  himself  testi- 
fies that  Waukon  was  his  brother. 

Wakun-ha-ga,  or  Snake  Skin,  a  son  of  Chahpost-kaw-kah, 
was  commonly  known  as  Waukon  Decorah,  or  Washington 
Decorah  because  in  1828  he  went  to  Washington  with  the 
chiefs ;  he  also  visited  Washington  later.  Waukon  Decorah  was 
a  great  council  chief  and  orator  of  his  tribe. 

The  following  treaties  were  signed  by  him :  August  19, 
1825,  Prairie  des  Chiens,  Michigan  Territory,  as  "W7an-ca-ha-ga, 
or  snake's  skin;"  August  25,  1828,  Green  Bay,  Michigan  Terri- 
tory, as  "Wau-kaun-haw-kaw,  or  snake  skin;"  August  i,  1829. 
Prairie  du  Chien,  Michigan  Territory,  as  "Wau-kaun-hah-kaw, 
snake  skin ;"  among  those  representing  the  Prairie  du  Chien 
deputation  at  Fort  Armstrong,  Rock  Island,  111.,  September  15, 
1832,  as  "Wau-kaun-hah-kaw,  or  snake  skin,  (Day-kau-ray) ;" 
November  i,  1837,  Washington,  D.  C.,  as  "Wa-kaun-ha-kah, 
(Snake  Skin)."  In  1832,  Mr.  Burnett  found  him,  with  the  prin- 
cipal part  of  his  band  from  the  Wisconsin  and  Kickapoo  rivers, 
about  sixty  miles  up  the  Mississippi  from  Prairie  du  Chien. 
This  was  during  the  Black  Hawk  war,  at  which  time  Waukon 
Decorah  aided  the  whites.  This  chief  belonged  to  the  Missis- 
sippi river  bands. 

Mr.  Saunders  says,  "Wakun-ha-ga  had  one  son  named 
'Ma-he-ska-ga,  or  White  Cloud;'  he  is  buried  here  on  this  reser- 

*  "Red  Men  of  Iowa,"  A.   R.  Fulton;  "The  Making  of  Iowa,"  Sabin. 
f  Same  reference  as  above. 


ration  [Nebraska].  This  man  was  known  around  Prairie  du 
Chien  and  Lansing  as  John  Waukon  (there  is  a  Charley  Wau- 
kon  who  is  now  living  at  Lansing,  la.,  but  he  is  no  relation  to 
the  Waukon  Decorah  family).  John  Waukon  has  one  daugh- 
ter, Mrs.  Henry  Big  Fire,  and  two  sons,  Henry  Smith  ('Hunting 
Man')  and  John  Smith  ('Che-wy-scha-ka')  still  living.  John 
Waukon  was  my  father-in-law;  my  wife's  name,  by  birth  and 
number  of  female  children,  was  Oc-see-ah-ho-no-nien-kaw.  She 
died  February  21,  1913." 

Waukon  Decorah's  portrait  (recently  identified),  painted  by 
J.  O.  Lewis*  at  the  Treaty  of  Prairie  du  Chien  in  1825,  is  shown 
in  Lewis'  Aboriginal  Portfolio.  He  is  there  called  "Waa-kaun- 
see-kaa,  or  the  Rattle  Snake."  Its  chief  distinction  is  a  turban 
composed  of  a  stuffed  rattlesnake,  wound  around  the  head,  on 
which  are  some  feathers ;  a  blanket  is  draped  around  the  lower 
part  of  his  form,  while  a  bunch  of  hair  (evidently  horsehair)  is 
thrown  over  his  arm. 

Waukon  Decorah  evidently  had  adopted  for  his  badge  a 
stuffed  snake  skin,  so  that  by  some  he  was  called  "snake  skin," 
by  others,  "rattlesnake,"  the  former  term,  according  to  historical 
data,  being  more  commonly  used.  Thomas  McKenney,  later 
United  States  Indian  Commissioner,  gives  a  portrait  of  this  chief 
in  McKenney  and  Hall's  "Indian  Tribes,"  with  a  biography. 
Here  he  is  called  "Wa-kaun-ha-ka,  a  Winnebago  Chief."  In  his 
biographic  note  McKenney  speaks  of  "Wa-kaun-ha-ka"  as  a  De- 
corah, moreover,  he  says  that  the  subject  was  part  French.  The 
Wa-kaun-ha-ka  of  McKenney  and  the  Waa-kaun-see-kaa  of 

*  Mr.  J.  O.  Lewis  was  employed  by  the  Indian  Department  from  182?. 
to  1834  to  make  portraits  of  the  Indians,  which  was  In  furtherance  of  the 
plan  of  Hon.  J.  A.  Barbour,  Secretary  of  War.  He  accompanied  Governor 
Lewis  Cass  and  Colonel  H.  L.  McKenney  in  their  western  tours,  1819  and 
1829,  and  was  present  at  the  several  treaties  made  by  these  gentlemen 
with  the  Chippewas,  Winnebagoes,  Sioux,  Pottawattamies,  and  others. 
One  of  the  folios  contained  a  letter  from  General  Cass  in  September,  1835, 
to  Mr.  Lewis,  confirming  the  correctness  of  his  pictures  and  commending 
him  to  the  public.  The  sketches  made  by  Mr.  Lewis  were  deposited  in  the 
Indian  Office,  War  Department,  at  Washington,  and  many  of  them  were 
afterwards  copied,  at  two  different  times,  for  the  work  of  McKenney  and 
Hall. — Part  2,  Smithsonian  Report,  1885. 


Lewis  are  portraits  of  the  same  person,  and  both  coincide  in  the 
rattlesnake  turban. 

The  variation  in  Indian  names  *is  not  a  formidable  matter  in 
identification.  Mr.  Lamere  states  that,  "The  literal  translation 
of  'Wa-kaun-see-kaa'  is  'the  Yellow  Snake.' "  Mr.  Saunders 
says:  "At  times  of  feasts  or  medicine  dances  Wa-kun-ha-ga 
wore  on  his  head  a  cap  [turban]  made  of  yellow  rattlesnake 
skins;  the  feathers  denote  bravery  in  battle."  L.  H.  Bunnell 
mentions  that  the  yellow  rattlesnakes  of  the  Mississippi  bluffs 
were  held  as  acred  by  the  Winnebagoes  and  Dakotas,  who  killed 
them  only  when  a  skin  was  required  for  a  religious  ceremony  or 
dance.* 

Miss  Kellogg,  research  assistant  to  Reuben  G.  Thwaitest, 
reports  as  follows :  "We  can  unhesitatingly  affirm,  that  there  is 
every  probability  that  this  is  the  well  known  Winnebago  known 
as  Waukon  Decorah.  *  *  *  *  I  think  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Lewis's  portrait  is  a  genuine  one,  and  correctly  iden- 
tified." 

Several  historians*  of  Iowa,  it  seems,  have  taken  their  ac- 
counts of  Waukon  Decorah  from  a  statement  originally  made  in 
the  "Annals  of  Iowa,"  1866,  by  Eliphalet  Price  of  Elkader,  Clay- 
ton county.  This  contains  numerous  errors.  The  Waukon  De- 
corah described  as  a  very  small  Indian  is  not  the  person  of  that 
name  known  to  Wisconsin  history.  Price  says,§  "He  was  usu- 
ally called  'the  Blind  Decorah,'  having  lost  his  right  eye;"  he 
further  states  that  the  meaning  of  Waukon  Decorah  is  "White 
Snake."  In  this  he  is  also  mistaken,  as  the  previously  given 
treaty  signatures  testify.  Decorah  is  a  corruption  of  the  French 
surname  De  Carrie. 


*  Wisconsin  Archeologist,  Vol.   6,   No.   3,  pgr.  134. 

t  Superintendent  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin. 

t  A.  R.  Fulton,  "  The  Red  Men  of  Iowa;  "  B.  F.  Gue,  "  History  of 
Iowa,"  Vol.  1;  Sabin  in  "The  Making  of  Iowa"  also  gives  the  same 
account. 

$  In  his  article  entitled  "  Wakon  Decorah,"  Annals  of  Iowa,  1866. 


WAA-KAUN-SEE-KAA   (The  Rattlesnake  or  Waukon-Decorah) 

From  a  painting  by  J.  O.  Lewis  at  the  Treaty  of  Prairie  du  Chien,  1825 


George  W.  Kingsley  makes  the  following  statements : 
"There  was  a  White  Snake  also,  but  he  was  not  a  chief,  although 
a  very  prominent  Indian.  He  died  in  Houston  county,  Minne- 
sota, about  the  time  the  Decorahs  lived  in  Iowa,  his  remains 
were  left  in  a  sitting  position  on  the  point  of  a  hill  about  one 
mile  north  of  the  village  of  Houston.  White  Snake  lost  a  part 
of  his  family  in  a  massacre  on  the  Wapsipinicon  river,  Iowa,  a 
few  years  after  the  Black  Hawk  war  while  on  an  elk  hunt,  by  a 
band  of  Sauk  and  Fox  Indians  by  mistake.  White  Snake  was 
part  Sauk." 

The  speech  referred  to  and  partly  quoted  in  W.  E.  Alex- 
ander's History  of  Winneshiek  and  Allamakee  counties,  1882, 
and  credited  to  Waukon  Decorah,  is  obviously  connected  with 
this  incident.  Evidently  the  speech  was  made  by  White  Snake. 
He  complained  that  his  tribe  had  been  firm  friends  of  the  whites, 
had  aided  them  in  the  Black  Hawk  war,  and  because  of  this  had 
incurred  the  enmity  of  the  Sauks  and  Foxes,  who  first  struck 
at  his  own  family.  He  desired  some  token  of  remembrance  for 
his  services. 

It  is  claimed  by  Alexander*  that,  "The  name  'Wachon 
Decorah'  is  found  translated  in  some  places  as  the  'White Crow' ; 
this  is  an  error.  There  was  a  White  Crow  whose  Indian  name 
was  Wa-haw-ska-kaw,  also  given  as  Kau-kich-ka-ka.  He  was 
a  prominent  Winnebago  civil  chief  and  orator  and  died  about 
the  year  1834  in  Wisconsin,  and  was  buried  there.  Spoon  De- 
corah, a  son  of  Old  Gray-headed  Decorah,  stated  that  White 
Crow  was  a  one-eyed  chief. 

Eliphalet  Price  took  the  census  of  1850  and  is  credited  by 
the  Day  family  (who  were  some  of  the  first  white  settlers  in 
Winneshiek  county)  with  suggesting  Decorah  as  a  very  proper 

*  In  his  History  of  Winneshiek  and  Allamakee  counties. 


name  for  the  town  site  that  they  had  in  mind  to  plat.t  In  the 
act  of  organizing  the  county  (1851)  Decorah  is  herein  first 
named,  two  and  a  half  years  before  the  town  plat  was  recorded. 
The  district  represented  by  Hon.  Eliphalet  Price  consisted  of 
Clayton,  Fayette,  Allamakee,  and  Winneshiek  counties.  John 
Day  made  the  remark*  that  Decorah  "was  a  small  Indian  about 
five  feet  in  height." 

Mr.  Price  and  Mr.  Day  were  probably  mislead  in  their 
identification  of  this  chief,  as  there  were  other  Winnebagoes 
whose  names  began  with  Waukon.  Apparently,  they  were 
familiar  with  the  name  Waukon  Decorah,  and  had  this  in  mind 
when  it  came  to  selecting  a  name  for  the  new  town.  Mr.  Price 
in  his  article  relates  that,  "Soon  after  the  removal  of  the  Winne- 
bagoes from  the  Wisconsin  to  the  Neutral  Ground  in  Iowa,  De- 
corah and  his  band  took  up  their  residence  on  the  Iowa  river 
near  the  present  site  of  the  town  that  bears  his  name,  in  the 
county  of  Winneshiek."  Antoine  Grignon  states :  "Wakun- 
ha-ga  [Waukon  Decorah]  was  camped  on  the  Iowa  river 
[Upper  Iowa]  when  I  knew  him.  *  *  *  *  He  did  not  re- 
main in  that  section  long."  Mr.  Saunders  says,  "Wakun-ha-ga, 
and  his  band,  also  had  a  village  at  or  near  Waukon,  la.,  where 
they  went  in  the  summer,  and  raised  corn  and  squash,  and  picked 
berries  for  winter  use." 

In  a  statement  made  by  Col.  C.  A.  Clark  in  "Annals  of 
Iowa,"  1903,  he  remarks  that,  "The  name  of  the  city  of  Decorah 
evidently  comes  from  Little  Decorah."  This  is  very  improbable, 
as  there  is  nothing  which  corroborates  it.  Old  Waukon  lived  a 
generation  or  two  before  Little  Decorah,  and  was  a  distin- 
guished chief,  while  it  appears  that  the  latter  was  of  lesser  note. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  our  county  seat  is  named  in 
honor  of  the  venerable  Waukon  Decorah.  Alexander  states, 

t  From  a  paper  prepared  by  A.  K.  Bailey  for  deposit  in  the  corner 
atone  of  the  new  Court  House. 

•  In  Alexander's  History  of  Winneshiek  and  Allamakee  counties. 


"Our  neighboring  town  of  Waukon  gained  its  name  from  the 
first  half."  Oliver  Lamere  confirms  this  in  the  following  ac- 
count: "Waukon  and  Waukon  Junction  have  derived  their 
names  from  Waukon  Decorah.  *  *  *  *  A  very  prominent 
chief  lived  at  the  time  the  Winnebagoes  were  there  [Iowa] 
called  'Ah-la-me-ga.'  It  is  thought  that  the  name  Allamakee 
is  taken  from  him,  and  therefore  it  is  a  Winnebago  name." 

Waukon  Decorah  was  noted  for  his  large  and  imposing 
stature  and  is  said  to  have  been  a  fine-looking  man.  Col.  Bris- 
bois  of  Prairie  du  Chien,  who  knew  him  well,  speaks  particularly 
of  his  stature.  Antoine  Grignon  states  that,  "he  was  a  large 
man  over  six  feet  tall  and  very  powerful;"  he  further  states, 
"Mr.  Price  is  mistaken, — Waukon  Decorah  was  not  blind."  He 
is  said  to  have  had  a  family  of  several  children  while  here  in 
Iowa,  but  the  number  is  not  known.  Wakun-ha-ga  was  a 
member  of  the  Snake  clan  and  belonged  to  the  Lower  phratry. 
It  is  said  that  his  sons  had  eagle  clan  names  and  claimed  to  be 
of  the  eagle  clan. 

What  are  said  to  be  the  remains  of  Waukon  Decorah, 
which  have  been  twice  re-interred,  now  repose  in  the  Court 
House  Square,  near  the  northeast  corner.  These  are,  however, 
the  bones  of  some  other  Indian.  The  first  grave  supposed  to  be 
that  of  Decorah  was  on  ground  now  occupied  by  Winnebago 
street,  just  below  Main,  almost  at  their  intersection.  The  open- 
ing of  the  street  to  travel  made  it  desirable  that  the  remains  be 
removed  to  another  spot.  This  was  done  by  a  formal  meeting 
of  prominent  citizens  August  4,  1859.  When  the  grave  was 
opened  the  remains  were  found  to  consist  of  human  bones,  a 
blanket,  a  tomahawk,  a  pipe,  and  a  great  number  of  beads. 
These  were  taken  out  and  buried  under  Ellsworth  and  Landers' 
store,  the  place  now  occupied  by  John  C.  Hexom  &  Son,  where 
they  remained  for  about  six  months.  When  the  stone  wall  in 


front  of  the  Court  House  was  completed,  the  remains  were  re- 
interred.  They  were  placed  in  the  Court  House  Square,  where 
they  lay  undisturbed  for  about  seventeen  years.  But  the  grad- 
ing and  terracing  of  these  grounds  and  the  building  of  the  new 
stone  wall  compelled  another  re-interrment  in  the  summer  of 
1876.  The  bones  were  taken  out  and  placed  in  a  box  to  be 
buried  again  inside  the  new  stone  wall. 

When  the  remains  were  first  exhumed  in  1859,  the  skull  had 
black  hair ;  this  assertion  is  corroborated  in  a  statement  made  by 
R.  F.  Gibson,  January  27,  1913,  to  the  writer  of  this  article. 
Mr.  Gibson  was  one  of  a  committee  of  three  appointed  to  take 
charge  of  the  remains. 

Waukon  Decorah  was  at  this  time  living  in  Minnesota  with 
his  people ;  this  fact  has  been  established  beyond  question.  It  is 
stated  in  Alexander's  history  that  even  prominent  participants 
in  the  first  exhumation  of  the  alleged  remains  of  Decorah 
were  confused  with  doubts,  by  rumors,  current  at  the  time, 
to  the  effect  that  Decorah  was  still  living.  He  died  at 
the  Blue  Earth  agency,  southern  Minnesota,  in  1868,  and 
was  buried  there.  Mr.  Lamere  says,  "He  was  about  ninety- 
three  years  old  when  he  died,  and  it  is  said  that  his  hair  was  as 
white  as  it  could  be."  This  is  practically  conclusive  proof  that 
the  death  of  Waukon  Decorah  did  not  occur  here,  and  that  his 
remains  are  not  buried  in  the  Court  House  Square. 

Little  Decorah  was  the  oldest  son  of  Old  Gray-headed  De- 
corah. His  Winnebago  name  is  given  as  "Maw-hee-coo-shay- 
naw-zhe-kaw,"  which  Mr.  Kingsley  interprets  as  "The  pillar  that 
reaches  the  clouds."  The  following  treaties  were  signed  by 
Little  Decorah:  November  i,  1837,  Washington,  D.  C.,  as 
"Ma-hee-koo-shay-nuz-he-kah,  (Young  Decori) ;"  October  13, 
1846,  Washington,  as  "Maw-hee-ko-shay-naw-zhee-kaw ;"  Feb- 
ruary 27,  1855,  Washington,  as  "Maw-he-coo-shaw-naw-zhe- 


kaw,  "one  that  Stands  and  Reaches  the  Skies,  or  Little  De- 
corie;"  April  15,  1859,  Washington,  as  "Little  De  Corrie;" 
March  i,  1865,  Washington,  as  "Little  Dacoria."  It  is  probable 
that  "Little  Decorah"  is  simply  another  term  for  Decorah, 
Junior. 

This  chief  established  a  village  on  the  Iowa  river  (Upper 
Iowa)  in  1840,  and  it  is  thought  that  he  was  about  forty  years  old 
while  here.  Antoine  Grignon,  who  was  acquainted  with  him, 
says,  "Little  Decorah  spent  very  little  time  in  Iowa — but  lived 
mostly  in  the  region  of  Portage,  Wis."  He  belonged  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi river  bands  of  Indians.  Waukon  Decorah  and  Little 
Decorah  had  separate  camps  on  the  Upper  Iowa  river. 

Little  Decorah  was  of  medium  height,  five  feet,  eight  or  ten 
inches,  and  was  chunky  and  fleshy.  It  is  said  that  he  was  slow 
of  action  and  speech,  but  possessed  a  mild  and  kind  disposition 
and  was  very  sensible.  He  belonged  to  the  Cloud  clan.  Little 
Decorah  died  near  Tomah,  Wis.,  April  i,  1887,  about  100  years 
old. 

Spoon  Decorah  was  a  son  of  Old  Gray-headed  Decorah.  (It 
will  be  remembered  that  Old  Decorah  had  a  brother  Choukeka, 
also  called  Spoon  Decorah).  Spoon  Decorah  was  born  at  his 
father's  village  near  the  mouth  of  the  Baraboo  river,  Wisconsin. 
In  March,  1887,  Dr.  Reuben  G.  Thwaites  had  an  interview  with 
him.  He  was  then  "living  with  his  aged  squaw,"  whose  name, 
it  is  said,  was  Gray  Eagle-eye.  "His  progeny,  reaching  to  the 
fourth  generation,  were  clustered  about  the  patriarchal  lodge 
in  family  wigwams."  He  could  only  converse  in  his  native 
tongue.  He  related,  "In  1840,  we  were  all  moved  to  the  Turkey 
river  [Iowa]  ;  but  in  the  spring  our  party  went  to  Iowa 
[Upper]  river,  where  Little  Decorah  had  a  village.  We  went 
down  soon  afterwards  to  the  Turkey  river  to  get  our  ammuni- 
tion, but  for  some  reason — perhaps  because  we  had  moved  to 
Iowa  river  without  the  consent  of  the  agent — we  couldn't  get 


any."*  He  then  went  back  to  Wisconsin,  where  he  died  Octo- 
ber 13,  1889,  in  a  cranberry  marsh,  near  Necedah.  It  is  said  that 
he  was  about  eighty-four  years  old  when  he  died,  t 

Spoon  Decorah,  a  cousin  of  the  Spoon  Decorah  interviewed 
by  Dr.  Thwaites  in  1887,  was  a  son  of  One-eyed  Decorah.  In 
regard  to  him  we  have  no  further  information. 

Angel  De  Cora — known  in  private  life  as  Mrs.  William  Deitz 
— is  the  daughter  of  a  descendant  of  the  hereditary  chief  of  the 
Winnebagoes.  The  name  "Angel"  came  about  through  an  acci- 
dent; its  bearer  was  carried,  while  a  baby,  to  a  young  kins- 
woman, who,  being  asked  to  choose  a  "Christian  name,"  opened 
a  Bible  at  random,  and  the  first  word  which  caught  her  eye  was 
''angel."  Her  Indian  name,  which  means  "Queen  of  the  Clouds," 
identifies  her  with  the  Thunder-bird  clan.  Angel  De  Cora — 
Deitz  states:  "Wakan  [Waukon  Decorah]  was  a  generation  or 
two  before  Maw-he-coo-shaw-naw-zhe-ka  [Little  Decorah]. 
The  latter  was  my  grandfather." 

Her  education  began,  while  very  young,  when  she  was  car- 
ried off  to  Hampton,  Va.  A  strange  white  man  appeared  on  the 
reservation  and  asked  her,  through  an  interpreter,  if  she  would 
like  to  ride  on  a  steam  car ;  with  six  other  children  she  decided  to 
try  it,  and  when  the  ride  was  ended  she  found  herself  in  Hamp- 
ton. "Three  years  later,  when  I  returned  to  my  mother,"  says 
Angel  De  Corat,  "she  told  me  that  for  months  she  wept  and 
mourned  for  me.  My  father  and  the  old  chief  and  his  wife  had 
died,  and  with  them  the  old  Indian  life  was  gone."  She  then 
returned  to  Hampton,  where,  through  the  efforts  of  a  kind 
family  who  gave  her  employment,  she  was  enabled  to  work  her 
way  through  a  local  preparatory  school  for  girls,  and  later  the 
art  department  of  Smith  College,  Northampton,  Mass.  § 

*  Wisconsin   Historical   Collections. 

f  Same  reference  as  above. 

t  The  Literary  Digest,  January   27,   1912,  pg.   161. 

§  Same  reference  as  above. 


Her  husband's  name  is  Wicarhpi  Isnala,  or  Lone  Star ;  he  is 
one-quarter  Sioux  and  the  rest  German.  Both  are  now  teaching 
art  at  the  Carlisle  Indian  School,  her  husband  having  also 
studied  art  and  become  an  artist  of  some  note.  Angel  De  Cora 
has  been  under  the  art  instruction  of  such  men  as  Howard  Pyle, 
Frank  Brown,  Joseph  De  Camp,  and  Edmund  Tarbell.  She  has 
won  distinction  in  her  work.  In  1904  her  husband,  Lone  Star, 
supervised  the  interior  and  mural  decorations  of  the  Indian  ex- 
hibit at  the  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition  in  St.  Louis.  It  was 
while  in  St.  Louis  that  he  became  acquainted  with  Angel  De 
Cora.* 

Roger  C.  Mackenstadt,  whose  boyhood  was  spent  in  the 
city  of  Decorah,  where  his  parents  still  reside,  says,  "Our  best 
policeman,  and  one  of  my  intimate  friends,  was  Peter  Decora,  a 
grandson  of  Chief  Wakan  Decorah.  *  *  *  *  In  the  whole 
tribe  I  would  say  that  fifty  are  named  Decora.  They  drop  the 
H.  There  are  several  Waukons,  about  ten,  and  twenty  Winne- 
shieks.  The  Winneshieks  and  Waukons  are  all  Wisconsin  Win- 
nebagoes  and  about  half  of  the  Decoras  are  Wisconsin."  Mr. 
Mackenstadt  having  received  a  promotion,  is  now  stationed  at 
the  Uintah  and  Ouray  Agency,  Utah. 


1.  Peace    pipe     presented   by    Old     Gray-Headed    Decorah    to   Maj. 
Xachary  Taylor. 

2.  Chief  Winneshiek's  pipe    (after  suggestion   furnished   by  Oliver 
Lamere.) 

3.  Winnebago  courting  flute,  known  on  the  frontier  as  the  deerskin 
flute,  after  Oeo.   Catlin. 

*  From  an  article  in  The  Literary  Digest,  January  27,  1912,  pg.  161. 


CHIEF  WINNESHIEK 


And  though  the  warrior's  sun  has  set, 

Its  light  shall  linger  round   us  yet. — 
— Translation  from  the  Spanish  by  H.  W.  Longfellow. 


Winneshiek,  who  seems  to  be  a  somewhat  shadowy  charac- 
ter, was  a  notable  chief  of  the  Winnebagoes.  It  appears  that 
there  was  a  family,  like  the  Decorah  family,  that  took  that  name. 
The  name  Winneshiek  is  evidently  not  a  Winnebago  name,  but 
an  Algonquian  (that  is,  Fox)  name,  and  is  properly  Winnishig* 
and  signifies  "a  dirty  person  who  is  lying  down."  He  was  com- 
monly known  by  his  Fox  name.  In  his  own  language  he  was 
called  "Wa-kon-ja-goo-gah,"  meaning  "Coming  Thunder;"  he 
was  also  called  "We-lou-shi-ga,"  meaning  "ties  them  up,"  or 
"has  them  tied  up."  It  is  also  said  that  his  name  in  his  own 
language  was  "Maun-wau-kon-kaw ;"  *regarding  the  last  two 
names  Little  Winneshiek  says,  "I  understand  that  this  name 
[We-lou-shi-ga]  is  a  Sioux  word  for  Wa-kon-ja-goo-gah,  or 
Coming  Thunder.  The  name,  Maun-wau-kon-kaw,  is  unknown 
to  us."  The  following  treaty  signatures  show  the  name  to  be 
variously  written :  August  25,  1828,  Green  Bay,  Michigan  Ter- 
ritory, " Wee-no-shee-kaw ;"  February  27,  1855,  Washington,  D. 
C.,  "Wau-kon-chaw-koo-haw,  the  Coming  Thunder,  or  Win-no- 
shik,"  (the  first  Indian  to  sign  the  treaty.) 

From  A.  R.  Fulton,  in  "Red  Men  of  Iowa,"  we  learn  that, 
"He  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  a  chief  when  quite  young,  and 
always  maintained  popularity  among  his  people.  *  *  *  * 
Both  physically  and  intellectually  he  was  a  remarkably  fine  speci- 

*  Wisconsin  Historical   Collections. 


men  of  his  race.  *  *  *  *  As  a  man  he  was  modest,  kind, 
and  courteous ;  as  a  chief,  dignified,  firm  and  just  in  the  exercise 
of  his  authority.  *  *  *  *  Winneshiek  was  made  head  chief 
of  the  tribe  in  1845  tat  tne  Turkey  river,  Iowa],  an  appoint- 
ment that  did  not  affect  his  position  as  chief  of  his  own  particular 
band."  Alexander  states* :  "He  was  made  chief  by  order  of 
the  United  States  War  Department,  on  account  of  his  ability 
and  fitness  for  the  position.  Under  him  as  head  chief,  there 
were  several  chiefs  of  respective  bands  into  which  the  tribe  was 
divided."  When  the  tribe  was  removed  to  Long  Prairie,  Minn., 
Winneshiek  was  the  head  chief,  and  in  1857,  when  they 
were  at  Blue  Earth,  he  was  called  a  worthy  chief  and  ruler  of  his 
tribe,  f 

Old  chief  Winneshiek  was  an  intelligent  and  very  kind  man, 
and  had  perfect  control  over  his  people.  He  belonged  to  the 
Thunder  clan,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Upper  phratry.  Mr. 
Lamere  says :  "He  is  said  to  have  been  of  medium  size,  had 
black  mustache  and  chin  whiskers.  He  was  very  handsome,  and 
it  is  said  that  he  always  wore  goggles,  or  dark  glasses.  He  al- 
ways carried  a  pipe,  which  was  made  out  of  a  round  stick  about 
a  foot  and  a  half  long  with  the  stem  hole  bored  through  it,  and 
the  bowl  bored  into  the  other  end;  he  carried  this  most  all  the 
time,  and  especially  at  council  meetings  would  he  have  it  with 
him." 

Mr.  Kingsley  says :  "We-no-shee-kah  was  strictly  a  pagan; 
he  did  not  believe  in  the  white  man's  way,  therefore  his  band  of 
followers,  which  consisted  of  about  one-half  or  two-thirds  of  the 
tribe,  were  known  as  blanket  Indians.  He  was  a  very  shrewd, 
wise,  and  stubborn  man,  but  free-hearted  to  everybody ;  no  per- 
son ever  left  or  entered  the  chief's  great  lodge  without  receiving 

*  In  his  History  of  Winneshiek  and  Allamakee  Counties.     There  is 
no  further  authentic  mention  regarding  this  statement. 
t  Wisconsin  Archeologist,  Vol.  6,  No.  3,  pg.  166. 


something  to  eat.  These  were  his  teachings ;  he  regarded  all  the 
Winnebagoes  as  his  children  and  treated  them  as  such.  We-no- 
shee-kah  was  no  orator,  therefore  in  council  with  the  govern- 
ment, or  otherwise,  he  always  had  a  speaker.  He  was  no  trav- 
eler, although  he  made  a  trip  or  two  to  see  his  Great  Father  at 
Washington,  President  Polk,  who,  as  a  token  of  friendship,  gave 
We-no-shee-kah  a  medal;  struck  on  the  reverse  side  were  two 
hands  clasped,  an  Indian's  in  that  of  a  white  man's  [regarding 
this  medal  see  statement  by  Little  Winneshiek].  Chief  We-no- 
shee-kah  was  a  great  father  as  well  as  a  head  chief.  He  had  four 
wives,  who,  with  himself  and  family,  lived  in  one  lodge.  His 
principal  home  was  about  seven  miles  west  of  the  village  of 
Houston,  on  the  Root  river,  Houston  county,  Minnesota;  here 
he  lived,  during  the  winter,  in  a  dirt  wigwam."  Fulton  states* : 
"He  had  four  wives,  one  of  whom  was  the  reputed  daughter  of 
Colonel  Morgan,  a  former  officer  in  the  United  States  army;" 
there  is  no  further  authentic  mention  which  corroborates  this 
statement  by  Fulton. 

That  Winneshiek  also  had  a  camp  on  the  Upper  Iowa  river 
is  evident,  as  Antoine  Grignon  says,  "While  he  [Winneshiek] 
was  camped  on  the  Iowa  river  my  brother  Paul  and  one  James 
Reed  visited  his  band  to  find  out  about  some  cattle  the  young 
Winnebagoes  had  stolen  from  the  Sioux.  They  were  given  in 
compensation  an  equal  amount  of  cattle,  or  a  number  cor- 
responding to  the  number  that  had  been  stolen,  and  Winneshiek 
warned  his  band  not  to  molest  the  cattle  as  they  were  being 
driven  out,  as  the  young  men  were  making  preparations  to 
stampede  the  herd  by  waving  red  blankets  in  front  of  them." 

P.  V.  Lawson,  a  Wisconsin  historian,  saysf  :  "The  Indians 
in  a  drunken  pow-wow  at  Prairie  du  Chien  had  killed  his 

*  "  Red  Men  of  Iowa,"  pg.  158. 

t  Wisconsin  Archeologist,  Vol.  6,  No.  3,  pg.  156;  taken  from  Wiscon- 
sin Historical   Collections   9,   287. 


brother.  Word  of  this  tragedy  being  sent  to  him,  he  coolly 
loaded  his  pistol,  and  with  it  concealed  beneath  his  blanket, 
went  to  the  place  where  his  brother  lay.  He  had  the  murderer 
brought  beside  his  victim  and  then  suddenly  shot  him  dead;" 
there  is  no  further  mention  made  of  this  incident.  It  is  stated,t 
however,  that  Winneshiek  was  in  1829  head  chief  of  the  Winne- 
bago  village  at  La  Crosse. 

He  was  on  the  British  side  in  1812-15,  and  in  1832  refused  to 
assist  the  Americans  against  the  Sauks.  When  invited  by  the 
whites  to  join  them,  the  matter  was  discussed  with  the  chiefs  and 
braves.  "Win-o-she-kaw  was  opposed  to  the  measure,  and  de- 
clined having  anything  to  do  with  it.  He  said  the  Sauks  had 
twice  that  season  presented  the  red  wampum  to  the  Winne- 
bagoes  at  Portage,  and  that  they  had  as  often  washed  it  white 
and  handed  it  back  to  them ;  further,  that  he  did  not  like  that  red 
thing;  that  he  was  afraid  of  it.  Waudgh-ha-ta-kau  [evidently 
the  One-eyed  Decorah]  took  the  wampum,  and  said  that  he  with 
all  the  young  men  of  the  village  would  go;  that  they  were 
anxious  to  engage  in  the  expedition  and  would  be  ready  to  ac- 
company us  on  our  return."*  A  short  while  after  this  it  was 
found  that  Winneshiek  and  Wau-mar-nar-sar  had  gone  up  the 
river  with  part  of  the  band  to  hunt  and  dry  meat. 

His  mother  was  a  sister  of  Wabokieshiek  (White  Cloud), 
the  half-Sauk,  half-Winnebago  Prophet,  who  assisted  Black 
Hawk.  Little  Winneshiek  says,  "For  this  relationship  he  fought 
in  a  number  of  battles  under  Black  Hawk  in  the  war  of  1832." 
Thomas  Clay,  an  aged  Winnebago,  heard  Winneshiek  tell  this 
from  time  to  time  at  death-wakes,  where  the  brave  men,  or  war- 
riors, were  supposed  to  tell  the  truth.  Clay's  statement  t  is  as 
follows : 

t  Wisconsin  Archeologist,  Vol.  6,  No.  3,  pg.  156:  taken  from  Wiscon- 
sin Historical  Collection  8,  287. 

*  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,   2, — 267,   256. 
t  As  given  by  Mr.  Oliver  Lamere. 


"Winneshiek  was  a  nephew  of  a  Sauk  and  Fox  Indian  called 
White  Cloud  [Wabokieshiek],  that  is  why  Winneshiek  was  an 
aid  to  the  Sauk  and  Fox  Indians  during-  Black  Hawk's  war. 
Winneshiek  was  taking,  or  guiding,  the  Fox  Indians  into  the 
Winnebago  country,  or  to  the  village,  and  as  they  were  crossing 
the  Mississippi  river  somewhere  near  where  Prairie  du  Chien 
now  stands,  a  steamboat  came  up  the  river  and  anchored  in  the 
middle  of  the  stream.  Then  some  one  called  out  from  the  boat 
and  asked  if  Black  Hawk  was  there  among  them.  'Yes/  was 
the  answer  from  the  Indians.  'Will  he  surrender  or  not?'  was 
the  next  question  from  the  boat.  Then  Winneshiek  spoke  up, 
and  said :  'Uncles  (meaning  the  Fox  Indians,  as  that  was  what 
he  always  called  them),  tie  a  white  cloth  to  a  pole  and  I  will 
go  and  surrender.'  So  they  made  a  white  flag  for  him,  but  as  he 
was  about  to  get  into  the  stream  to  swim  to  the  boat,  the  Fox 
people  said :  'Perhaps  after  all  you  had  better  not  go,'  and  saying 
thus,  they  held  him ;  and  the  soldiers  in  the  boat  could  see  that 
he  was  being  held.  Then  Winneshiek  said :  'Uncles,  I  meant  to 
do  this  that  you  might  live,  but  the  result  shall  be  your  fault.' 
Just  then  the  question  came  again  from  the  boat,  'Will  you  sur- 
render?' The  answer  from  the  Indians  was  'No!  we  will  not 
surrender,'  and  no  sooner  was  it  said  than  the  soldiers  fired  upon 
them,  and  even  at  the  first  volley  many  of  the  Indians  were 
killed.  Then  Winneshiek  said :  'Uncles,  thus  far  only,  am  I 
able  to  be  with  you,  as  I  shall  leave  you  here ;'  and  saying  thus, 
he  and  his  real  uncles  went  up  the  bank  of  the  river  and  there 
watched  the  fight.  When  night  came  upon  them,  he  took  his 
Fox  uncles  back  to  the  Wmnebago  village  with  him.  When 
they  arrived  at  the  village,  Winneshiek's  mother  met  him,  cry- 
ing :  "Oh !  my  son,  because  you  have  aided  Black  Hawk  in  the 
war,  they  have  taken  your  father  to  the  fort  as  a  prisoner.' 
When  the  soldiers  learned  that  Winneshiek  was  back  at  his  own 
village  they  came  after  him  and  released  his  father.  Winneshiek 


was  questioned  very  severely,  but  he  was  angered  instead  of 
frightened,  and  he  would  not  even  speak,  and  for  four  days  he 
would  not  eat  the  food  that  was  given  him.  Then  one  of  the 
officers  said  to  his  fellow  officers:  'You  must  be  very  severe  in 
questioning  Winneshiek.  I  will  question  him  myself,  to-day.' 
So  the  officer  went  to  him  and  as  he  entered  he  called  Winne- 
shiek by  name,  greeting  him  and  shaking  hands  with  him,  he 
said :  'Winneshiek,  I  understand  that  some  officers  have  ques- 
tioned you,  but  that  you  were  angered  and  would  not  even  speak 
to  them,  and  I  told  them  that  they  must  have  acted  very  un- 
gentlemanly  towards  you  to  cause  you  to  act  as  you  did.'  Win- 
neshiek said :  'Yes,  that  is  the  way  they  have  acted.'  'That  is 
what  I  thought,'  said  the  officer,  and  continued.  'Winneshiek, 
I  am  going  to  talk  with  you  with  good  words/  and  Winneshiek 
assented;  so  the  officer  said:  'Winneshiek,  as  you  have  been 
spoken  to  roughly,  which  caused  you  to  not  eat  for  four  days, 
and  as  I  am  going  to  speak  to  you  with  good  words,  therefore 
I  desire  that  you  should  eat  before  we  talk  and  I  will  have 
cooked  for  you  a  very  nice  dog  that  I  own  myself,  and  at  noon, 
after  you  have  had  your  noon  meal,  then  we  shall  talk.'  Then 
the  officer  got  some  Indians  that  were  about  the  fort  to  cook  the 
dog  for  him  in  the  way  they  usually  cook  them  for  themselves. 
So  when  it  was  thus  served  to  Winneshiek  and  he  had  partaken 
of  it,  then  he  and  the  officer  talked.  The  officer  was  very  much 
pleased  that  Winneshiek  talked  with  him  in  a  good  spirit.  Then 
he  said :  'Winneshiek,  I  am  going  to  ask  you  a  question  and  I 
would  like  to  have  you  tell  me  the  truth;'  Winneshiek  assented. 
The  officer  asked :  'Were  you  with  the  Foxes  in  the  war  ?'  Win- 
neshiek said :  'Yes/  and  the  officer  asked  again :  'Did  you  take 
part  ?'  Winneshiek  said :  'As  you  have  asked  me  for  the  truth, 
I  will  tell  it  to  you, — yes,  I  took  part/  Then  the  officer  said : 
'Winneshiek,  I  thank  you  because  I  asked  you  for  the  truth  and 
you  gave  it  to  me/  Then  the  officer  did  not  question  him  any- 


more,  but  left.     Winneshiek  was  kept  in  prison  one  year  for 
being  an  aid  to  Black  Hawk." 

Kingsley  says :  "We-no-shee-kah  and  his  band  after  being 
moved  about  from  one  reservation  to  another  were  finally  re- 
moved from  Blue  Earth,  Minnesota,  to  Usher's  Landing,  or 
Fort  Thompson,  S.  D.  Here  a  part  of  the  band  starved  to  death 
and  others  died  of  exposure.  He  took  the  remnant  of  his  band 
and  started  down  the  Missouri  river  in  canoes,  in  hopes  of  going 
to  St.  Louis,  and  hence  up  the  Mississippi  to  his  native  haunts  in 
Iowa,  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota;  but  the  old  chief  got  as  far 
down  as  St.  Joseuh,  Mo.,  and  there  winter  overtook  him  and  his 
little  band.  The  old  chief  took  sick  and  died  very  suddenly. '' 
At  this  time  the  old  chief  evidently  was  on  the  Kansas  side  of 
the  Missouri,  as  Mr.  Lamere  says :  "He  died  in  Kansas,  or  just 
across  the  southern  line  of  Nebraska  among  the  Iowa  Indians/' 
One  wife  and  the  family  came  through  the  next  summer.  Little 
Winneshiek,  a  son  of  the  old  chief,  says :  "My  father  traveled 
extensively  in  the  interest  of  the  tribe,  he  with  other  chiefs  were 
in  Washington  on  two  occasions  for  the  purpose  of  ceding  large 
areas  of  land  at  each  time  to  the  Federal  Government ;"  he  fur- 
ther says:  "Your  county  was  named  in  honor  of  my  father. 
Chief  Winneshiek,  who  was  considered  the  head  of  the  Winne- 
bago  tribe  at  the  time  they  were  occupying  the  Turkey  river  dis- 
trict in  Iowa.  Ours  was  the  family  to  which  Geo.  Kingsley  re- 
ferred to  as  moving  to  Wisconsin  after  my  father's  death." 

No  one  knows  who  gave  the  county  its  name ;  this,  like  cer- 
tain other  things  concerning  the  earliest  history  of  the  county, 
has  apparently  never  been  recorded.  At  an  old  settlers'  meeting 
held  in  Decorah,  July  4,  1876,  Mr.  A.  K.  Bailey  delivered  an 
address  in  which  it  was  strongly  intimated  that  this  might  have 
been  the  work  of  Hon.  Eliphalet  Price.  Alexander  accepted  this 
as  good  enough  history  and  gives  it  as  such  in  his  history  of  the 
county.  However,  Mr.  A.  K.  Bailey  corrects  this  by  a  later 


article*  in  which  he  states :  "The  very  recent  discovery  that  the 
•county  was  named  legally  [February  27,  1847],  and  its  boun- 
daries described,  more  than  four  years  before  the  organizing  act 
fi85i]  was  passed  (which  has  until  now  [1903]  been  considered 
as  the  beginning  of  county  existence),  makes  this  credit  to  Mr. 
Price  improbable." 

Young  Winneshiek,  or  Winneshiek  the  Younger,  so-called  in 
history,  was  a  younger  brother  of  old  chief  Winneshiek,  or  Com- 
ing Thunder.  It  is  statedt  that  he  was  a  son  of  the  old  chief,  but 
this  is  an  error  and  does  not  refer  to  his  son  Little  Winneshiek 
who  says,  "Young  Winneshiek  was  named  Ah-hoo-sheeb-gah, 
or  Short  Wing,  by  his  fellow  tribesmen;  he  was  a  younger 
brother  of  my  father  and  did  not  participate  in  the  Sauk  and 
Fox  war  [1832]."  It  is  said!  that  during  the  so-called  Winne- 
bago  war,  in  1827,  Young  Winneshiek  was  held  as  a  hostage  by 
Colonel  Dodge  for  the  good  behavior  of  the  tribe.  This  state- 
ment is  made  by  several  historians!  in  which  connection  they 
also  mention  him  as  taking  part  in  the  Black  Hawk  war,  1832; 
Mr.  Clay's  narrative  refers  to  chief  Winneshiek,  an  older  brother 
of  Young  Winneshiek.  Little  Winneshiek's  statement  (as  given 
above)  confirms  Mr.  Clay's  narration.  It  is  stated  in  Alexander's 
history  that  Winneshiek  was  a  noted  orator.  Obviously,  this 
refers  to  Young  Winneshiek,  for  in  the  Report  of  the  Indian 
agent  for  1840+,  there  is  a  speech  made  by  Young  Winneshiek, 
in  which  he  refers  to  himself  as  "a  boy,"  protesting  against  the 
removal  to  Iowa.  Kingsley  testifies  that  old  chief  Winneshiek 
(Coming  Thunder)  was  "no  orator." 

•  From  a  paper  prepared  by  A.  K.  Bailey,  for  deposit  in  the  corner 
stone  of  the  new  Court  House,  and  republished  in  the  "  Illustrated  His- 
torical Atlas  of  Winneshiek  County,"  Sec.  II,  pg.  3. 

f  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  2, — 331. 

II  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  2, — 331. 

§  Fulton,  Gue,  and  Sabin;  the  latter  two,  it  seems,  have  taken  their 
accounts  from  Fulton.  They  were  probably  under  wrong  impressions  in 
reference  to  "Young  Winneshiek"  as  their  statements  (according  to  his- 
torical data)  seem  to  apply  to  more  than  one  person. 

J  Wisconsin  Historical  collections. 


Antoine  Grignon  says,  "Young  Winneshiek  was  a  bright 
young  man.  He  died  rather  young,  at  Black  River  Falls,  Wis." 
When  the  Winnebagoes  were  being  removed  from  Blue  Earth, 
the  chiefs  Decorah  and  Winneshiek  (evidently  One-eyed  Dcorah 
and  Young  Winnshiek)  fled  with  their  families  and  other  mem- 
bers of  the  tribe  to  Wisconsin.  Young  Winneshiek  had  a  village 
on  the  Black  River  and  died  there  in  May,  1887. 

No-gin-kah  (meaning,  Striking  Tree  and  Younger  Winne- 
shiek) is  the  youngest  son  of  Chief  Winneshiek,  or  Coming 
Thunder.  He  is  seventy  years  old  and  is  still  living  in  Wiscon- 
sin. He  is  more  commonly  known  as  Little  Winneshiek.  No- 
gin-kah  says,  "John  Winneshiek  and  I  are  the  only  sons  of  Chief 
Winneshiek  living  and  his  other  descendants  produced  by  our 
deceased  brothers  and  sisters  diverge  into  a  very  large  family." 
He  further  states  that,  "The  medals  issued  to  Winnebago  chiefs 
by  the  United  States  Government  are  lost,  the  one  described  by 
Geo.  W.  Kingsley  was  lost  by  one  of  my  elder  brothers.  I  have 
only  one  medal  in  my  possession,  on  which  is  engraved  King 
George  the  3d  and  Latin  inscriptions  [this  medal,  (with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  slight  variation  in  size)  conforms  to  a  description  of 
the  one  issued  by  the  British  military  authorities  in  1778]." 

John  Winneshiek's  Indian  name  is  Ko-sho-gi-way-ka,  mean- 
ing "One  that  goes  low;"  he  is  seventy-eight  years  old. 

Old  chief  Winneshiek's  Indian  name  is  given  by  some  his- 
torians* as  Wa-kun-cha-koo-kah,  but  this  is  evidently  an  error. 
Wa-kun-cha-koo-kaht  is  the  Indian  name  of  chief  Yellow  Thun- 
der, who  migrated  with  his  tribe  to  Iowa.  Yellow  Thunder  did 
not  remain  long  at  the  Turkey  river,  for  within  a  year  he  and  his 
wife  (known  in  history  as  "the  Washington  woman")*  returned 
to  Wisconsin ;  here  he  entered  a  tract  of  forty  acres  as  a  home- 

*  Fulton,    "Red   Men   of    Iowa:"    Gue,    "History   of   Iowa,"   Vol.    1; 
Sabin,   "  The  Making  of  Iowa." 

f  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  Bulletin  30,  pt.  2,  pg.  996. 
I  "Wisconsin  Archeologist,  Vol.   6,  No.   3,  pjf.   160. 


NO-GIN-KAH  (Striking  Tree  or  Little  Winneshiek) 


stead  on  the  west  side  of  the  Wisconsin  river.  He  died  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1874.  Yellow  Thunder  was  greatly  respected  by  his  peo- 
ple, and  was  an  able  counsellor  in  their  public  affairs. 

Other  Winnebago  chiefs  known  to  have  been  in  the  county 
were  Whirling  Thunder  (Wau-kaun-ween-kaw),  Little  Hill  (Sho- 
gee-nik-ka)  who,  at  Long  Prairie,  became  head  spokesman  for 
the  chiefs;  Big  Bear,  and  Kayrah-mau-nee,  a  son  of  Carry- 
maunee  (or  Nawkaw). 


MISSION  SCHOOL  AND  TRADING  POST 


By  the  treaty  of  September  15,  1832,  it  was  stipulated  that 
the  government  should  annually,  beginning  in  September,  1833, 
and  continuing  for  twenty-seven  years,  give  the  Winnebagoes 
$10,000  in  specie,  and  establish  a  school  among  them,  at  or  near 
Prairie  du  Chien,  with  a  farm  and  garden,  and  provide  other 
facilities,  not  to  exceed  in  cost  $3,000  a  year,  for  the  education  of 
their  children,  and  continue  the  same  for  twenty-seven  succes- 
sive years.  Six  agriculturists,  twelve  yoke  of  oxen  and  as  many 
plows,  and  other  farming  tools  were  to  be  supplied  by  the  gov- 
ernment. The  buildings  were  erected  in  1833,  on  the  Yellow 
river,  Allamakee  county,  Iowa,  and  President  Jackson  appointed 
Rev.  David  Lowry,  a  Presbyterian  minister,  to  assume  charge. 
The  mission  school  was  removed  in  1840,  from  the  Yellow  river 
to  a  point  on  the  Turkey  river,  in  Winneshiek  county,  about 
four  miles  southeast  of  the  fort  buildings. 

The  erection  of  the  mission  was  superintended  by  Rev. 
Lowry.  There  were  about  twenty  buildings  at  the  mission.  One 
was  a  large  school  house,  another  a  small  church,  while  the  rest 
were  dwellings.  Early  Catholic  pioneers,  who  settled  near  the 
Turkey  river  (1849),  purchased  these  buildings.  The  small 
church  was  used  as  a  chapel,  hence  the  name  Old  Mission.  In 
1853  it  was  destroyed  by  fire. 

There  was  also  a  mission  one  mile  east  of  the  fort,  on  the 
Turkey  river,  established  by  Catholic  missionaries.  Here  there 
were  a  number  of  graves,  and  at  the  head  of  each  was  a  cross. 
It  is  unknown  whether  any  of  the  graves  were  those  of  converted 


Indians  or  not.  The  buildings  belonging  to  this  mission  were 
burned  down  by  a  prairie  fire  in  the  early  fifties. 

Alexander  states  *  that,  "Rev.  Lowry's  assistant  was  one  by 
the  name  of  Col.  Thomas.  To  him  was  turned  over  the  work  of 
instructing  the  Indians  in  agricultural  pursuits.  The  first  year, 
under  Col.  Thomas'  supervision,  a  farm  of  300  acres  was  opened. 
However,  little  work  could  be  got  out  of  them,  and  the  crops 
planted  began  to  show  neglect."  There  was  an  abundance  of 
game  in  the  country  round  about,  and  therefore  the  temptation 
for  the  Indian  to  roam  and  hunt  was  very  strong.  As  a  result  he 
became  negligent  about  tilling  the  soil.  In  1843  Col.  Thomas, 
under  governmental  instructions,  built  the  first  grist  mill  in 
Winneshiek  county.  The  mission  and  farm  was  continued  until 
the  reservation  was  sold  to  the  government.  Lowry  finally  re- 
signed to  take  charge  of  a  mission  in  Minnesota  and,  in  1846, 
Mr.  Fletcher  was  appointed  agent  for  the  Winnebagoes  by 
President  Polk,  and  served  in  that  capacity  for  eleven  years. 
During  that  time  he  resided  at  Fort  Atkinson,  Iowa,  Long 
Prairie,  Minn.,  and  Blue  Earth,  Minn.  Under  the  careful  man- 
agement of  Mr.  Fletcher  the  Winnebagoes  attained  to  consider- 
able proficiency  in  agriculture,  and  otherwise  improved  their 
condition. 

During  his  service  as  Indian  agent  Mr.  Fletcher  was  accom- 
panied by  his  wife,  who  engaged  earnestly  in  the  work  of  teach- 
ing the  Indians.  Their  eldest  son,  Frank  Fletcher,  acquired  such 
command  of  the  language  of  the  Indians  that  he  became  his 
father's  interpreter.  General  Fletcher,  while  serving  as  agent, 
contributed  through  the  publications  of  Mr.  Schoolcraft  a  vast 
amount  of  information  concerning  the  religion,  traditions,  and 
customs  of  the  Winnebagoes  while  at  the  Turkey  river.  In  1858 
Mr.  Fletcher  returned  to  Iowa,  where  he  died  April  6,  1872,  on 
his  farm  near  Muscatine,  sixty-six  years  old. 

*  In  his  History  of  Winneshiek  and  Allaraakee  Counties. 


When  the  crop,  planted  under  Col.  Thomas'  supervision, 
began  to  show  neglect,  a  force  of  garrison  men  were  detailed  to 
cultivate  it,  and  were  paid  for  their  labor  out  of  the  Indian  annu- 
ity. Hon.  A.  Jacobson  states* :  "Ole  Halvorsen  Valle,  un- 
doubtedly the  first  Norwegian  to  visit  the  county,  was  engaged 
in  the  service  of  the  government  as  teamster,  hauling  provisions 
from  Fort  Crawford,  Wis.,  to  Fort  Atkinson  and  the  Old  Mis- 
sion ;  he  was  also  employed  in  breaking  up  pieces  of  bottom  land 
on  the  Upper  Iowa  river.  One  of  the  largest  fields  thus  pre- 
pared for  the  Indians  to  plant  their  corn  was  situated  just  below 
the  outlet  of  Trout  Run."  Mr.  Goddard  says,  "An  Indian  chief 
had  a  farm  about  one-half  mile  southwest  of  Spillville,  and  a 
considerable  part  of  the  ground  was  broken  up." 

An  Indian  trading  post  was  established  two  miles  southwest 
of  the  fort  by  a  Mr.  Olmstead  and  one  Joseph  Hewitt.  It  seems 
that  they  had  a  permit  from  the  government  to  trade  with  the 
Indians.  The  buildings,  all  one  story  high,  were  constructed  of 
logs.  There  were  five  in  number,  two  large  dwelling  houses,  one 
large  store,  one  storage  house,  and  a  blacksmith  shop.  Capt. 
Joseph  Hewitt's  principal  occupation  was  hunting,  trapping,  and 
fishing.  In  1851  he  left  the  country  and  located  at  Clear  Lake, 
la.,  where  he  experienced  no  little  trouble  with  the  Sioux  In- 
dians. In  1849  Josiah  Goddard  bought  the  old  Indian  trading 
post  from  Olmstead,  and  in  1850  moved  his  family  on  to  the 
land.  Three  or  four  acres  of  this  land  had  been  broken  up  by 
the  Indians. 


•  In  his  article  "  Reminiscences  of  Pioneer  Norwegians,"  published 
In  the  Historical  Atlas  of  Wlnneshlek  County,  1905.  Sec.  II,  p».  11. 


FORT  ATKINSON 


Now,  the  boys  in  blue,  you  bet, 
Earn  whatever  praise  they  get. — 

— Joseph  Mills  Hanson,  "Frontier  Ballads." 


In  1840  the  Winnebago  Indians  were  removed  to  their  new 
home  on  the  Neutral  Ground.  In  order  to  protect  them  from 
the  incursions  of  their  neighbors,  among  whom  were  the  Sauk 
and  Fox  tribes,  as  well  as  from  intrusions  of  the  whites,  and  in 
turn  to  prevent  them  from  trespassing  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
reservation,  soldiers  were  stationed  among  them.  A  detachment 
of  the  5th  Infantry  (Company  F)  under  command  of  Captain 
Isaac  Lynde  left  Fort  Crawford,  with  a  complement  of  eighty- 
two  officers  and  enlisted  men,  and  went  into  camp,  May  31,  1840, 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Spring  creek  (now  known  as  Goddard's 
creek)  on  the  Turkey  river.  The  camp  was  named  "Camp  At- 
kinson" in  honor  of  Brigadier  General  Henry  Atkinson,  U.  S. 
Army,  the  Department  Commander  who  was  so  prominent  in 
military  operations  in  the  upper  Mississippi  valley.  Barracks 
and  quarters  sufficient  to  accommodate  one  company  were 
erected,  and  in  March,  1841,  the  Secretary  of  War  ordered  that 
the  station  be  known  as  Fort  Atkinson. 

Rumors  of  the  warlike  attitude  of  a  portion  of  the  Sauk  and 
Fox  Indians,  who,  it  was  believed,  intended  sending  out  a  party 
against  the  peaceable  Winnebagoes,  caused  Governor  Dodge  of 
Wisconsin,  in  a  letter  dated  January  23,  1841,  and  directed  to  the 
Commissioner  of  Indian  affairs,  to  urge  strongly  that,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  garrison  there  at  that  time,  a  mounted  force  be  sta- 


tioned  at  Fort  Atkinson.     The  following  is  an  extract  from 
Governor  Dodge's  letter : — 

"In  compliance  with  the  instructions  of  your  Department 
the  Agency  and  School  have  been  removed  to  the  new  site  on 
Turkey  river  with  about  700  of  the  Indians  of  the  Winnebago 
Nation.  These  Indians,  it  is  confidently  expected,  will  not  re- 
turn, unless  another  blow  should  be  struck  by  the  Sauks  and 
Foxes.  Such  an  event  may  not  be  looked  for  this  winter,  but  it 
is  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Lowry  that  it  may  certainly  be  calculated 
upon  in  the  ensuing  spring  unless  a  mounted  force  should  be 
stationed  at  Camp  Atkinson. 

"Information  was  received  by  Mr.  Lowry  through  Governor 
Lucas,  obtained  from  a  portion  of  the  Sauks  and  Foxes  not  un- 
friendly to  the  Winnebagoes,  that  a  war  party  was  to  have  set 
out  against  the  latter  in  November  last.  A  very  extraordinary 
snow  storm  is  believed  to  have  prevented  this  attack.  The  war 
party  is  now  on  Red  Cedar  (fifty  miles  west  of  Camp  Atkinson)  : 
a  large  body  of  Sioux  are  also  in  that  vicinity,  and  scouts  of  the 
former  have  been  fired  at  by  the  latter  but  as  yet  no  blood  has 
been  shed.  The  difficulty  of  keeping  the  Winnebagoes  at  their 
new  homes,  under  these  circumstances,  and  without  an  adequate 
force  for  their  protection,  must  be  readily  seen." 

This  letter  was  referred  to  the  War  Department,  where  it 
was  in  turn  referred  to  General  Atkinson  with  instructions  to  use 
every  effort  to  prevent  any  collision  between  the  Indians.  Gen- 
eral Atkinson  responded  to  these  instructions  March  I,  1841, 
as  follows : — 

"Sir :  I  have  the  honor  to  report,  that  I  have  received  your 
letter  of  instructions  of  the  I5th  ultimo,  accompanied  by  an  ex- 
tract of  a  letter  from  Governor  Dodge  of  the  23d  of  January,  in 
reference  to  establishing  a  mounted  force  at  Fort  Atkinson  for 
the  protection  of  the  Winnebago  Indians.  It  is  impossible  to 
station  a  mounted  force  at  that  point  before  the  middle  of  May, 
as  there  are  no  barracks,  quarters  or  stables  for  their  accommo- 


dation,  nor  forage  for  their  horses.  I  will,  however,  order  the 
troop  at  Fort  Crawford  to  make  excursions  through  the  country 
of  Turkey  and  Cedar  Rivers,  till  the  season  opens  to  enable  it  to 
go  under  tents,  at  which  time  the  grass  will  be  grown  suffi- 
ciently to  subsist  the  horses. 

"No  time  should  be  lost  by  the  Quartermaster's  Depart- 
ment in  proceeding  to  erect  quarters,  barracks,  and  stables  for 
the  troop  at  the  post  on  Turkey  River,  or  they  will  not  be  ready 
for  their  accommodation  by  the  coming  of  the  next  winter.  I 
request,  therefore,  that  orders  to  that  effect  may  be  given  with- 
out delay. 

"With  great  respect,  Sir,  your  most  obedient  servant, 
(Signed.)  H.  ATKINSON, 

Brigadier  General  U.  S.  Army. 
Brigadier  General  Jones, 
Adjutant  General  U.  S.  Army,  Washington." 

On  the  24th  of  the  following  June,  Company  B  of  the  ist 
Dragoons  arrived  at  the  fort  and  took  up  their  station,  and  from 
that  time  until  1847  the  fort  was  a  two-company  post.  Septem- 
ber nth  Captain  Lynde's  company  was  relieved  by  Company  K 
of  the  ist  Infantry,  Captain  J.  J.  Abercrombie. 

In  the  year  following,  at  various  times,  on  the  requisition 
of  Governor  Chambers  of  Iowa  Territory,  detachments  and 
patrols  were  sent  out  from  this  fort  to  remove  squatters  and 
other  intruders  from  the  lands  of  the  Sauk  and  Fox  Indians  and 
to  prevent  their  return.  August  7th  Company  I,  ist  Dragoons, 
under  Command  of  Captain  James  Allen,  arriving  at  the  fort, 
whence  they  proceeded  to  the  Sauk  and  Fox  Agency,  where 
they  established  Fort  Sanford.  From  this  time  until  its  abandon- 
ment Fort  Atkinson  was  successively  garrisoned  by  the  follow- 
ing organizations : 

Company  B,  ist  Infantry,  Captain  Sidney  Burbank;  Com- 
pany A,  ist  Infantry,  Captain  Osborne  Cross;  Company  E,  ist 
Infantry,  Captain  A.  S.  Miller;  Company  A,  ist  Iowa  Volunteer 


Infantry,  Captain  James  M.  Morgan;  Company  A,  ist  Iowa 
Volunteer  Dragoons,  Captain  John  Parker;  a  detachment  of 
Wisconsin  Volunteers,  Dodge  Guards,  under  command  of  Lieu- 
tenant Benjamin  Fox;  (here  was  an  interim  of  several  months 
during  which  the  Fort  was  not  garrisoned ;)  and  from  September 
25,  1848,  until  the  time  of  its  abandonment,  Company  C,  6th  In- 
fantry, Captairi  F.  L.  Alexander.* 

The  fort  was  situated  in  the  northwestern  part  of  Washing- 
ton township  (on  the  old  military  road  constructed  from  Fort 
Snelling  to  Fort  Gibson)  and  stood  on  a  rock-ribbed  hill  over- 
looking the  site  of  the  town  which  now  bears  its  name.  This  hill 
is  about  eighty-four  feet  above  the  Turkey  river.  The  fort  build- 
ings were  two  stories  high,  twenty  feet  to  the  eaves.  Each  build- 
ing had  an  upper  porch  along  its  entire  length,  the  one  on  the 
officers'  quarters  being  screened  in  with  the  old  fashioned  mov- 
able wooden  blinds.  The  buildings  occupied  an  acre  of  ground. 
The  stables,  about  40  feet  wide  and  about  300  feet  long,  extended 
north  and  south  and  were  about  20  rods  east  of  the  street.  The 
bakery,  and  the  blacksmith  shop  and  carpenter  shops  were  north 
of  the  fort  on  the  north  side  of  the  street. 

The  main  barracks  consisted  of  the  commissioned  officers' 
quarters,  built  of  stone,  the  non-commissioned  officers'  quarters, 
built  of  logs  hewn  fiat,  one  soldiers'  quarters  (including  hospital 
rooms),  built  of  stone,  and  another  soldiers'  quarters  (including 
church  and  school  rooms),  built  of  flat  hewn  logs.  The  soldiers' 
quarters  were  250  feet  long.  These  four  main  buildings  enclosed 
a  parade-  and  drill-ground  (with  a  flag-staff  at  one  end),  and  in 
turn  were  enclosed  by  a  stockade  twelve  feet  high  and  made  out 
of  logs  hewn  flat  and  set  on  end  in  a  narrow  trench.  The  top 
of  the  stockade  consisted  of  spikes  driven  into  the  sharpened 
ends  of  the  logs.  Port  holes  were  cut  at  about  every  four  feet. 

*  War  Department  Records  of  Fort  Atkinson  in   "  Annals  of  Iowa," 
July,  1900,  Vol.  IV,  No.  6. 


In  two  corners  of  the  stockade  were  located  cannon-houses ; 
and  in  the  other  two  corners,  the  Quartermasters'  store  house 
(adjoined  by  the  sutler's  store)  and  the  magazine,  or  powder- 
house.  The  guard-house  was  near  the  sutler's  store,  and  a  senti- 
nel's beat  was  constructed  near  the  powder-house.  The  plat- 
form of  the  sentinel's  beat  was  about  three  feet  below  the  top 
of  one  side  of  the  stockade  and  extended  nearly  its  whole  length. 
At  one  end,  by  the  magazine  house,  was  constructed  a  small 
shelter  for  the  protection  of  the  sentinel  during  inclement 
weather.  The  outer  walls  of  the  Quartermaster's  store  extended 
somewhat  outside  the  stockade. 

Alexander  states* :  "The  material  of  which  it  was  built  was 
prepared  at  Fort  Crawford,  Prairie  du  Chien,  Wis.,  and  the  cost 
of  making  a  wagon-road,  the  same  ever  since  known  as  the  Old 
Military  road,  and  transporting  the  material  to  its  destination, 
brought  the  cost  of  building  the  fort  to  $93,000."  However,  all 
the  material  was  not  prepared  at  Fort  Crawford,  as  Mr.  Goddard 
says,  "The  government  had  a  sawmill  at  Old  Mission,  where  all 
the  hardwood  used  in  the  fort  was  cut.  The  stone  used  was 
quarried  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  fort.  The  pine  lumber 
and  other  material  was  brought  from  Fort  Crawford." 

Alexander  says  :t  "The  first  blacksmith  in  Winneshiek 
county  was  Harmon  Snyder.  He  came  from  Prairie  du  Chien 
with  the  force  (of  about  50  mechanics)  detailed  to  build  the  fort, 
and  was  employed,  chiefly,  in  work  for  the  garrison.  At  the 
same  time  he  did  a  great  deal  of  work  for  the  Indians.  They 
would  stand  around  and  watch  him  while  at  his  work,  with 
wonder  and  admiration." 

Antoine  Grignon,  who  aided  in  the  removal  of  the  Winne- 
bagoes  in  1848,  says,  "Fort  Atkinson  was  quite  a  lively  place 
when  I  was  there ;  there  was  a  company  of  cavalry  there  at  that 

•  In  his  history  of  the  county, 
t  Same  reference  as  above. 


time."  Concerning  the  Indian  agency  which  was  established  in 
connection  with  the  fort,  Mr.  Kingsley  relates  that,  "The  Winne- 
bagoes  were  given  food,  clothing,  gold,  and  silver.  In  money 
they  received  $46.00  per  head,  twice  a  year.  The  head  of  the 
family  represented  his  family  by  the  number  of  sticks  in  his  hand, 
and  the  annuity  was  disbursed  to  him  accordingly.  I  have 
heard  my  mother  say  that  she  was  a  young  girl,  about  fourteen 
years  old,  the  time  of  the  Turkey  river  reservation  days;  her 
father,  being  a  sub-chief,  drew  a  portion  of  the  supplies;  these 
were  tied  up  in  a  buffalo  robe  and  put  on  a  pony  that  she  rode. 
The  cash  amounted  to  between  $1,000  and  $2,000." 

February  24,  1849,  tne  Post  was  finally  abandoned.  It  was 
turned  over  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  for  disposition  Janu- 
ary 10,  1851.  At  the  present  time  all  that  is  still  standing  of  the 
fort  is  the  cannon-house  of  the  southwest  corner. 

"Orders  No.  9. 

Headquarters  6th  Military  Department. 
St.  Louis,  Missouri,  February  loth,  1849. 
In  pursuance  of  General  Orders  No.  3,  of  the  23d  ultimo, 
for  the  abandonment  of  Fort  Atkinson,  the  Company  of  the  6th 
Infantry  stationed  there  will  be  withdrawn  to  Fort  Crawford, 
and  will  form  a  part  of  the  garrison  of  that  post. 

The  public  stores  at  Fort  Atkinson  will  be  removed  or  sold, 
as  may  be  found  expedient  under  the  circumstances. 
By  order  Bvt.  Major  General  Twiggs : 

D.  C.  BUELL, 
Asst.  Adjt.  Gen. 

Although  the  military  appearance  was  no  longer  kept  up, 
the  fort  was  not  entirely  abandoned  as  a  post.  A  discharged 
soldier  of  the  regular  army,  named  Alexander  Faulkner,  who 
held  the  rank  of  first  sergeant,  was  appointed  by  the  government 
to  look  after  it.  Josiah  Goddard,  who,  with  his  family,  moved 
from  Wisconsin  to  this  section  in  1849,  spent  the  winter  of  1849- 


5O  in  the  old  fort  when  it  was  in  charge  of  Mr.  Faulkner.  Soon 
after,  Faulkner  was  relieved  by  Geo.  Cooney,  whom  Alexander 
says*,  "was  a  well-known  citizen  of  the  county,  who  lived  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  old  fort."  The  fort  became  useless  as  govern- 
ment property,  and  was  sold  at  public  auction  to  one  J.  M. 
Flowers  for  $3,521.  The  reservation  is  described  as  containing 
1,920  acres.  This  land  was  finally  disposed  of  under  the  pro- 
visions of  the  acts  of  Congress  of  July  30,  1856,  and  June  7, 
1860. 

Of  the  officers  who  served  at  this  post,  six,  namely :  Cap-- 
tain John  J.  Abercrombie  and  Lieutenants  Schuyler  Hamilton, 
John  H.  King,  and  Joseph  B.  Plummer,  of  the  ist  Infantry,  and 
Captain  Edwin  V.  Sumner  and  Lieutenant  Alfred  Pleasanton,  of 
the  ist  Dragoons,  attained  to  the  rank  of  general  officers  in  the 
U.  S.  Army  in  the  Civil  War. 

Assistant  Surgeon  William  S.  King  was  retired  as  an  Assist- 
ant Surgeon  General.  Captain  Osborne  Cross  of  the  ist  In- 
fantry was  transferred  to  the  Quartermaster's  Department  and 
became  Assistant  Quartermaster  General  with  the  rank  of  Col- 
onel. Captain  Sidney  Burbank  of  the  ist  Infantry  commanded 
his  regiment,  2d  U.  S.  Infantry,  during  the  Civil  War  and  was 
breveted  for  gallantry. 

Lieutenants  Simon  B.  Buckner  and  Henry  Heth  of  the  6th 
Infantry,  and  Abraham  Buford  and  Alexander  W.  Reynolds  of 
the  ist,  resigned  their  commissions  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War  and  became  general  officers  in  the  Confederate  service. 
Assistant  Surgeon  Charles  H.  Smith  served  in  the  medical  de- 
partment of  the  Confederate  army.  A.  R.  Young,  father  of 
Frank  Young  of  Decorah,  was  a  soldier  at  Fort  Atkinson,  and 
left  with  other  troops  for  Mexico,  but  returned  soon  after  the 
country  was  opened  to  settlers. 

*  In  his  history  of  the  county. 


The  first  death  of  a  white  man  in  Winneshiek  county  was 
that  of  a  government  teamster  named  Howard,  frozen  to  death 
October  4,  1840,  near  Castalia,  while  driving  from  Fort  Craw- 
ford to  Fort  Atkinson.  He  was  buried  at  the  latter  place.  The 
first  white  child  born  in  the  county  was  Miss  Mary  Jane  Tapper, 
born  at  the  fort  January  16,  1841. 


October  13,  1846,  the  Winnebagoes  ceded  "all  claim  to 
land,"  and  especially  their  rights  on  the  Neutral  Ground,  and 
were  given  a  tract  of  land  selected  by  the  chiefs  at  Long  Prairie, 
Minn.  The  Indians  were  not  satisfied  with  the  location,  and 
most  of  them  remained  scattered  throughout  the  country. 

Mr.  Henry  M.  Rice  secured  the  contract  to  remove  these  to 
Minnesota,  and  employed  Moses  Paquette,  Antoine  Grignon, 
and  others  to  assist  him.  Antoine  Grignon,  who  is  now  eighty- 
four  years  old  and  a  resident  of  Wisconsin,  says,  "I  went  to 
school  four  years  with  Moses  Paquette;  he  was  a  Winnebago 
mixed  blood.  I  have  no  Indian  name,  but  am  part  Sioux  and 
Winnebago.  I  helped  locate  camps  for  H.  M.  Rice,  along  the 
river,  and  we  gathered  the  Indians  together  in  La  Crosse,  took 
them  by  steamboat  to  St.  Paul,  then  overland  by  wagon  to  Long 
Prairie,  Minn.  I  remained  at  Long  Prairie  until  1854.  They 
disliked  very  much  to  leave  Iowa.  They  were  removed  in 
wagons,  being  guarded  by  dragoons  from  Fort  Atkinson." 

The  names  of  the  twenty-four  Indian  signers  of  the  Treaty 
of  Washington,  negotiated  with  the  Winnebago  Indians  October 
13,  1846,  are  as  follows : 

Hoong-ho-no-kaw. 

Is-jaw-go-bo-kaw. 

Co-no-ha-ta-kaw. 

Naw-hoo-skaw-kaw. 

Shoong-skaw-kaw. 


Kooz-a-ray-kaw. 

Waw-ma-noo-ka-kaw. 

Ha-naw-hoong-per-kaw. 

Waw-roo-jaw-hee-kaw. 

Baptist-Lasalica. 

Waw-kon-chaw-per-kaw. 

Kaw-how-ah-kaw. 

Hakh-ee-nee-kaw. 

Waw-kon-chaw-ho-no-kaw. 

Maw-hee-ko-shay-naw-zhec-kaw. 

Wo-gie-qua-kaw. 

Waw-kon-chaw-she-shick-kaw . 

Chas-chun-kaw. 

Naw-hey-kee-kaw. 

Ah-hoo-zheb-kaw. 

Maw-nee-ho-no-nic. 

Maw-ho-kee-wee-kaw. 

Sho-go-nee-kaw. 

Watch-ha-ta-kaw,  (by  Henry  M.  Rice,  his  delegate.) 

Mr.  Lamere  has  translated  most  of  the  above  names;  the 
translations  are  as  follows:  Hoong-ho-no-kaw,  or  Little  Chief 
(also  called  Little  Priest) ;  he  was  a  member  of  the  Wolf  clan. 

Co-no-ha-ta-kaw ; — "Co-no"  is  the  name  of  all  the  first  born 
male  children  of  the  Winnebagoes  (the  word  "co-no"  does  not 
mean  first-born,  but  is  the  name  of  the  first  born) ;  "ha-ta"  means 
"big."  As  there  were  usually  two  or  three  families  in  a  lodge 
and  more  than  one  "co-no,"  they  usually  called  the  oWer  one 
"co-no-ha-ta-kaw,"  meaning,  "older,  or  big-first-born." 

Maw-hoo-skaw-kaw,  or  White  Sturgeon ;  this  is  a  Fish  clan 
name. 

Shoong-skaw-kaw,  or  White  Dog;  a  member  of  the  Wolf 
clan. 


Koez-a-ray-kaw,  or  the  Created;  a  member  of  the  Bear 
clan. 

Waw-ma-noo-ka-kaw,  or  the  Stealer  (Thief) ;  this  is  a  self- 
taken  name,  a  right  the  warriors  had,  especially,  when  they  had 
accomplished  anything  of  importance  in  battle.  This  particular 
name  signifies  that  he  overcomes  his  enemies  so  easily  that  it  is 
like  stealing  them. 

Ha-naw-hoong-per-kaw ; — "Ha-naw"  is  the  name  of  the 
second  born  male  child  in  a  family ;  "hoong-per"  signifies  "good 
chief,"  thus  the  meaning  would  be  "the  second  born  good  chief ;" 
his  English  name  was  "White-horse"  and  he  was  a  member  of 
the  Wolf  clan. 

Wo-gie-qua-kaw,  or  "Strikes  them  as  he  comes."  This  is 
a  Buffalo  clan  name,  and  is  taken  from  the  actions  of  a  bull 
buffalo  running  a  herd,  when  he  seems  to  lead  or  drive  them  by 
butting,  or  striking  them  about. 

Wau-kon-chaw-she-shick-kaw,  or  Bad  Thunder  (a  Thunder 
clan  name). 

Chas-chun-kaw,  or  the  Wave  (a  Fish  clan  name.) 

Naw-hey-kee-kaw,  or  "He  who  makes  trees  dead ;"  a  Thun- 
der clan  name  taken  from  the  action  of  the  lightning  when  it 
strikes  trees,  so  that  they  dry  up  and  die. 

Ah-hoo-zheb-kaw,  or  Short  Wing  (Young  Winneshiek). 

Waw-roo-jaw-hee-kaw,  or  "Thunders  on  them"  (Thunder 
clan  name). 

Waw-kon-chaw-per-kaw,  or  the  Good  Thunder  (Thunder 
clan  name.) 

Waw-kon-chaw-ho-no-kaw,  or  the  Little  Thunder  (Thun- 
der clan  name). 

Maw-hee-koo-shay-naw-zhee-kaw,  or  Little  Decorah  (One 
who  Stands  and  Reaches  the  Skies). 

Maw-nee-ho-no-nic,  or  Little  Walker  (Eagh  clan  name). 


Maw-ho-kee-wee-kaw,  or  "He  who  goes  along  in  the  sky ;" 
the  word  "kaw"  on  the  end  of  every  name  means  "he"  or  "the." 

Sho-go-nee-kaw,  or  Little  Hill. 

Watch-ha-ta-kaw  (undoubtedly  One-eyed  Decorah). 

About  1300  were  removed  to  Minnesota  at  this  time,  leav- 
ing, it  was  estimated,  about  400  still  remaining  in  Iowa  and  Wis- 
consin. Others  were  removed  in  1850. 

"A  place  of  notoriety  that  existed  in  the  early  history  of 
Winneshiek  county  was  a  spot  called  'Grab-all/  This  place 
was  a  high  bench  of  timber  land,  half  way  between  the  Iowa 
trail  and  Postville.  It  was  given  this  name  because  the  Gov- 
ernment stationed  a  sergeant's  guard  there  to  'grab  all'  the 
Indians  passing  that  way,  for  removal."* 

It  is  easily  understood  why  the  Winnebagoes,  when  later 
removed  to  other  places,  returned  in  little  bands,  quite  fre- 
quently, to  visit  the  scenes  they  loved  so  well;  they  persisted 
in  this  until  civilization  shut  them  out  forever.  The  Winne- 
bagoes had  many  favorite  camping  sites  along  the  rivers  of  the 
county.  Mr.  Lamere  says  that  the  Winnebago  Indian  name 
for  Iowa  river,  with  reference  to  the  Upper  Iowa,  is  "Wax- 
hoche-ni-la,"  meaning  Iowa  river,  also  called  "Wax-hoche-ni- 
sha-nuk-la."  The  Winnebago  Indian  name  for  the  Turkey  river 
is  "Zee-zee-ke-ni-la,"  meaning  Turkey  river,  also  called  "Zee- 
zee-ke-ni-sha-nuk-la."  James  Smith,  a  Winnebago,  states.t  "a 
river  south  of  Lansing,  la.,  is  called  Yellow  Hair  river*  by  the 
Indians;  the  Winnebago  name  for  this  river  is  'Na-jew-zee-ni- 
sha-nuk-laV 


*  Alexander's  "  History  of  Winneshiek  and  Allamakee  Counties." 
f  A  statement  made  to  Mr.  Oliver  Lamere. 

t  Evidently  the  Yellow   river,  which  has  its  source  in  Winneshiek 
county. 


REMINISCENCES 


When  the  first  homeseekers  came  to  Winneshiek  county  the 
remains  of  several  Winnebago  Indian  villages  were  still  in  exist- 
ence. Numerous  Indian  trails  were  in  evidence  in  nearly  all 
parts  of  the  county,  many  of  which  led  to  the  site  of  the  present 
city  of  Decorah. 

In  "  Reminiscences  of  Springfield  Township  f  "  Hon.  A. 
Jacobson  states:  "The  Indians  who  had  inhabited  this  portion 
of  the  country  where  we  settled  were  removed  by  government 
troops  two  years  previous  to  our  arrival.  They  had  evidently 
intended  to  return  at  some  future  time  as  they  had  made  large 
cellar-like  holes  in  the  ground  in  which  were  deposited  all  kinds 
of  goods  covered  with  the  bark  of  trees.  Such  things  as  corn, 
feathers,  axes,  and  kettles  were  in  good  preservation  when  ex- 
humed by  the  new  settlers. 

"Quite  large  parties  of  Indians  traversed  the  country,  but 
they  had  their  homes  in  the  territory  of  Minnesota  and  did  not 
molest  us  in  the  least.  There  were  no  settlements  northwest  of 
us  the  first  year,  hence  being  on  the  frontier  we  often  felt  un- 
easy, having  heard  that  some  traders  sold  them  whiskey. 

"Indian  trails,  well  marked,  crossed  the  country  in  various 
directions,  and  with  little  deviation  continued  to  be  the  roads  of 
early  settlers,  until  the  fencing  in  of  the  fields  pushed  the  roads 
into  the  worst  places." 

Alonzo  Bradish,  who  came  to  Decorah  in  1852,  says* : 
"One  of  their  trails  followed  the  east  bend  of  Pleasant  Hill  and 

t  Sec.  II,  pg.  11,  Atlas  of  Winneshiek  County,  1905. 
•  In  a  personal  interview  with  him. 


left  off  at  a  point  about  where  the  Catholic  church  now  stands 
on  East  Broadway.  This  trail  was  well  marked  by  frequent 
travel,  and  in  places  there  were  considerable  depressions  below 
the  surface,  caused,  to  a  certain  extent,  by  the  dragging  of  tipi 
poles  fastened  to  the  backs  of  horses  [travois]. 

"In  the  early  days  travelers  had  to  ford  the  stream  where 
the  Twin  Bridges  now  span  the  Upper  Iowa.  The  road  leading 
from  here  up  through  the  valley,  to  the  district  now  called  Clay 
Hill,  was  known  as  the  St.  Paul  stage  road,  and  the  valley  was 
called  Cruson's  Hollow.  This  route  was  very  frequently  traveled 
by  the  Indians.  A  favorite  camping  place  of  the  Indians,  when 
traveling  through,  was  on  the  ground  now  known  as  the  Court 
House  Square. 

"They  always  carried  a  blanket,  and  wore  leggings  that 
reached  up  over  the  thigh,  and  a  clout.  Many  carried  hatchets, 
of  which  the  most  were  made  of  iron.  The  young  Indian  boys 
were  expert  marksmen  with  the  bow  and  arrow,  hitting  pennies 
and  nickels  at  fifty  to  sixty  feet  distance. 

"I  had  opened  a  hardware  and  tin  shop,  and  here  the  In- 
dians occasionally  came  to  have  their  guns  repaired.  These 
guns  were  the  only  kind  used  then  and  were  known  as  flintlocks, 
the  ammunition  being  big  lead  balls.  The  Indians  were  supplied 
with  them  by  the  government. 

"A  young  Indian  and  his  squaw  were  camped  at  a  spot 
about  where  the  stockyards  are  now  located  at  the  east  end  of 
Water  street.  The  river  at  this  time  was  very  low  and  he  busied 
himself  in  making  a  dugout  canoe  from  the  trunk  of  a  large 
cottonwood  which  he  had  felled.  When  the  high  water  came 
they  put  the  boat  in  the  stream  and  getting  in  were  soon  on 
their  way  down  stream,  headed  for  Lansing  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Upper  Iowa,  where  a  part  of  the  tribe  were  encamped." 

Philip  Husted,  an  old  settler,  relates  *  that,  "Quite  often 

•  In  a  personal  interview  with  him. 


parties  of  Winnebago  Indians  would  travel  through  the  country ; 
one  of  their  favorite  camping  places  was  on  the  Yellow  river 
near  Frankville.  They  would  sell  their  beadwork,  and  were 
very  pleasant  and  peaceable  with  the  whites." 

A  number  of  years  ago  Mr.  E.  C.  Bailey  met  two 
Indians  at  the  Methodist  church  corner,  on  upper  Broadway. 
One  was  a  very  old  Indian,  and  the  other  middle-aged.  Mr. 
Bailey  (who  was  then  about  twenty  years  old)  was  asked  if  he 
knew  where  a  Mr.  E.  Anderson  lived.  One  of  them  opened 
a  neat  note  book  in  which  was  written,  "These  Indians  are  good 
Winnebago  Indians,  and  they  are  to  be  trusted." 

(Signed.)  E.  ANDERSON, 

Sheriff  of  Winneshiek  county. 

It  is  not  definitely  known  what  year  Mr.  Anderson  was 
sheriff,  but  his  statement  is  only  another  example  of  the  confi- 
dence early  settlers  placed  with  the  Winnebagoes. 

Although  Iowa  was  in  a  manner  always  neutral  ground  and 
escaped  many  of  the  worst  results  of  the  encounters  between 
the  whites  and  the  Indians,  the  early  settlers  of  Winneshiek 
county  had  their  Indian  scare,  and  they  had  good  reason  to  be- 
come alarmed.  What  led  to  this  was  the  Indian  uprising  and 
Sioux  massacre  in  Minnesota  in  June,  1862. 

They  had  swept  Minnesota  with  bullet  and  brand 
Till  her  borders  lay  waste  as  a  desert  of  sand. 
When  we  in  Dakota  awakened  to  find 
That  the  red  flood  had  risen  and  left  us  behind. 
Then  we  rallied  to  fight  them, — Sioux,  Sissetons,  all 
Who  had  ravaged  unchecked  to  the  gates  of  Saint  Paul. — 
— Joseph  Mills  Hanson,  "Frontier  Ballads." 

At  this  time  the  Winnebagoes  were  at  Blue  Earth  in  south- 
ern Minnesota.  Although  they  took  no  part  in  the  Sioux  mas- 
sacre, and  even  though  they  offered  the  government  their  serv- 
ices in  punishing  the  Sioux,  the  inhabitants  of  Minnesota  de- 


manded  their  removal.  They  were  hastily  removed  to  South 
Dakota,  where  they  suffered  many  hardships. 

This  Indian  scare  was  general  throughout  the  county  and 
was  an  occurrence  well  remembered  by  the  old  settlers.  A  con- 
tributor to  The  Decor  ah  Journal,  1882,  states :  "As  I  write  the 
word  'Indians/  my  memory  takes  me  back  to  the  early  days  of 
my  childhood  in  Decorah.  Again  I  see  a  rider  on  a  foaming 
steed  dash  along  Broadway,  as  I  did  twenty  or  more  years  ago, 
shouting  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  'The  Indians  are  coming!' 
Again  I  see  the  street  thronged  with  blanched  faced  men  and 
trembling  women,  running  to  and  fro  in  wild  excitement  and 
gazing  with  anxious  faces  off  into  the  west  *  *  *  .  Again 
I  hear  the  whispered  consultation  of  the  men  as  to  the  best 
means  of  protecting  their  loved  ones.  Again  I  feel  my  hand 
clasped  in  that  of  my  sainted  mother  as  I  toddle  along  at  her 
side,  down  Mill  street  hill,  across  the  old  red  bridge,  and  over 
to  West  Decorah — a  place  of  imagined  safety.  It  was  a  false 
alarm,  and  probably  faded  from  the  memory  of  many  of  our 
readers,  and  remembered  by  others  only  as  the  dim  recollection 
of  a  half  forgotten  dream." 

At  Decorah,  men,  women,  and  children  gathered  on  the 
Court  House  Square,  and  prepared  to  withstand  a  siege. 
Settlers  left  their  homes  and  gathered  in  Decorah  as  a  place  of 
refuge,  many  of  them  camping  on  the  flat  now  known  as  Park 
Addition.  Men  armed  themselves  with  any  kind  of  weapon  that 
lay  handy,  and  determined  to  defend  their  families  and  homes, 
but  were  greatly  relieved  when  the  threatened  attack  proved  to 
be  only  a  rumor. 

J.  C.  Fredenburg,  of  Canoe  township,  says*,  "I  remember 
the  Indian  scare.  Some  one  came  to  our  house  one  night  about 
twelve  o'clock  and  told  father  the  Indians  were  coming  and  that 
they  were  about  twenty  miles  away,  killing  people  and  burning 

•  Sec.  II,  pg.  14,  Atlas  of  Winneshiek  County. 


all  the  houses.  Father  and  mother  talked  it  over  and  father  said, 
'I  will  go  to  Burr  Oak  and  see  what  is  to  be  done/  He  left 
mother  and  me  at  home,  and  when  he  arrived  at  Burr  Oak 
nearly  all  the  people  were  there  for  several  miles  around,  some 
with  their  teams  and  families.  They  held  a  council  and  decided 
that  all  should  meet  there  and  build  a  fort  for  their  protection, 
but  no  Indians  came,  so  the  people  settled  down  again.  It  was 
some  time,  however,  before  all  fear  had  vanished." 

Other  similar  accounts  might  be  given,  but  the  preceding 
narratives  describe  the  conditions  as  they  existed,  during  this 
scare,  throughout  the  county. 

There  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  any  Indian  murders  took 
place  within  the  boundaries  of  our  county.  There  were,  how- 
ever, several  such  murders  committed  in  the  near  neighborhood : 
that  of  the  Gardner  family,  in  Fayette  county;  of  Riley,  near 
Monona;  and  of  Herchy,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Volga.  The 
contaminating  influence  of  the  bootlegger  was  the  direct  cause 
of  these  murderous  deeds.  "Firewater"  was  the  curse  of  the 
Indian,  as  it  has  since  been  to  many  a  white  man. 

Taft  Jones  and  Graham  Thorn  were  two  bootleggers  who 
infested  the  neighborhood  of  the  Winnebago  reservation.  The 
government  did  not  allow  such  characters  to  come  on  the  reser- 
vation, so  they  came  as  near  to  its  boundaries  as  they  dared 
and  established  so-called  trading-posts  in  the  vicinity  of  Monona, 
giving  them  the  names  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  The  Indians 
used  to  frequent  these  places  and  always  got  badly  cheated. 
Alexander  gives*  the  following  account: — 

An  old  Indian  visited  Taft  Jones'  den,  at  Sodom,  and  traded 
in  all  his  worldly  effects  for  whiskey,  he  even  sold  the  blanket 
from  his  shoulders.  Becoming  intoxicated,  he  was  turned  out 
of  doors,  and  on  his  way  to  his  lodge  died  from  exposure  and 
cold.  The  next  morning  his  son,  a  youth  of  about  twenty  sum- 
*  In  his  history  of  the  county. 


mers,  found  the  dead  body  of  his  father  out  in  the  snow,  naked 
and  frozen.  His  revengeful  feelings  were  aroused,  and  going 
to  the  whiskey  den  at  Gomorrah,  he  shot  the  first  man  he  saw 
through  the  window.  Unfortunately  it  happened  to  be  an  in- 
offensive man  named  Riley.  A  detachment  of  troops  under 
command  of  Lieutenant  David  S.  Wilson  was  sent  out  to  cap- 
ture the  Indian  who  committed  the  murder.  He  was  appre- 
hended, taken  to  Fort  Atkinson,  and  confined  in  the  guard- 
house; but  by  the  connivance  of  a  sympathizing  white  man  he 
escaped  and  was  never  recaptured.  Jones  lived  a  short  time 
after  this  occurrence  and  died  from  chronic  alcoholism." 

Thus  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  give  in  brief  outline  the 
Indian  history  of  Winneshiek  county.  The  writer  soon  discov- 
ered, after  taking  up  the  study  of  the  subject,  that  nowhere  was 
accurate  information  in  concise  form  to  be  had  in  regard  to  the 
aboriginal  inhabitants  of  the  county;  their  occupation  of  the 
county  seems  to  have  been  an  obscure  period  in  their  history. 
The  writer  has  regarded  it  as  well  worth  while  to  gather  the 
data  here  presented,  and  has  had  in  view  that  this  article  should 
faithfully  preserve  the  early  scenes  of  our  predecessors  in  the 
county. 

The  river,  whose  peaceful  waters  reflected  the  light  of  their 
campfires,  now  furnishes  the  power  that  lights  the  modern  struc- 
tures of  the  white  men,  by  which  their  wigwams  have  been  sup- 
planted. But  the  memory  of  the  red  men  will  never  perish  from 
the  minds  of  those  who  have  succeeded  them.  The  names  of 
Winneshiek  and  Decorah,  that  are  attached  to  our  county  and 
county  seat,  will  be  an  enduring  monument  to  their  former 
occupation  of  the  soil. 

Here  still  a  lofty  rock  remains, 

On  which  the  curious  eye  may  trace 

(Now  wasted  half  by  wearing  rains) 
The  fancies  of  a  ruder  race. 


Here  still  an  aged  elm  aspire*. 

Beneath  whose  far  projecting  shade 
(And  which  the  shepherd  still  admires) 

The  children  of  the  forest  played. 

There  oft  a  restless  Indian  queen 

(Pale  Sheba  with  her  braid  and  hair), 

And  many  a  barbarous  form  is  seen 

To  chide  the  man  that  lingers  there. 

By  moonlight  moons,  o'er  moistening  dews, 

In  habit  for  the  chase  arrayed, 
The  hunter  still  the  deer  pursues, 

The  hunter  and  the  deer — a  shade! 

And  long  shall  timorous  Fancy  see 

The  painted  chief,  and  pointed  spear, 
And  Reason's  self  shall  bow  the  knee 
To  shadows  and  delusions  here. — 
—dosing  stanzas  of  Philip  Freneau's  "The  Indian  Burying-ground." 


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